How so? Arizona is a community property state.
Community property works like this: if you're married and you earn $100, then you own $50 and your spouse owns $50 when the marriage ends (death or divorce), although the $100 is held jointly while the marriage survives. But not everything is community property; for instance, if your uncle wills you a home in Flagstaff, then you own all of the property, provided you don't transmute it by paying for its upkeep from community property funds. Similarly, if you had $10,000 and your spouse had $7500 before you married, that $10,000 is your sole and separate property, again providing you don't transmute it.
Think of community property like this: as soon as a death occurs, the property is split 50/50 between the surviving member and the decedent. So how do you divide up decedent's remaining share?
You can see how this gets complex when you figure in divorces, remarriages, and kids. For example, let's say Don had $30,000 in assets. $20,000 is in community property; $10,000 is sole and separate property. He has a spouse and one kid that is his legal kid, and one kid who is his stepson. Assume all who remain outlived Don by 120 hours (otherwise, they're determined to have pre-deceased Don under the sudden-death statute).
Under Arizona's intestate laws, if Don died, his spouse would get 1/2 of the separate property ($5,000), and 0% of the community property, although Spouse would own $10,000 in his/her half share of community property. ARS 14-2102(2). The legal child gets $15,000 ($5,000 sole and separate property and $10,000 community property). The stepkid gets nothing.
[edit] I'm pretty certain. This is what I remember from my bar classes. So take it with a grain of salt.
