Overview

For nearly 50 years, Phoenix estate planning attorney Jim Ryan has helped high net worth Arizona families and business owners create and enjoy financial legacies. A Fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel and a Certified Specialist in Estate and Trust Law, Jim Ryan is a widely acknowledged leader in Phoenix-Scottsdale legal and business circles for complex estate and business planning and estate administration.

Professional Leadership in Estate Planning and Administration

In addition to estate planning, Jim Ryan’s law practice encompasses tax planning, estate administration and business transactions.

He has been certified as a specialist in Estate & Trust Law since the inception of certification of this specialty in Arizona. He is a past chairman of the Estate and Trust Advisory Commission for the State Bar of Arizona, which administers the annual certification test for applicants in the Estate and Trust Law specialty, and served on the Commission for seven years.

Jim also chaired the Arizona Trust Code subcommittee to the Probate and Trust Section of the State Bar of Arizona for four years and is a member and past chairman of the Probate and Trust Section Executive Council. The Arizona Trust Code project successfully concluded with its passage into law effective January 1, 2009.

He is the 2016 recipient of the State Bar of Arizona’s Eleanor ter Horst Distinguished Service Award, made annually to an attorney who has “demonstrated superior knowledge of the law of probate and trusts and the willingness to share his knowledge with the bar, the bench and the public.”

Jim has lectured on numerous occasions for the State Bar of Arizona, Maricopa County Bar Association, Arizona Society of Certified Public Accountants, Arizona Community Foundation, Phoenix Tax Workshop, Arizona State University Alumni Association, National Business Institute, State Bar of Arizona Annual Convention and numerous estate planning study groups.

Personal

Jim has a passion for law, golf and music. The rural Iowa native is a 2010 inductee in the Iowa Rock ’n Roll Hall of Fame.

Videos

Trusts

• With the Estate Tax Exemption So High, Do I Still Need a Trust? (1:02)
• Creating an Arizona Trust to Protect Assets from Future Creditors (1:09)
• If I Set Up a Trust, Do I Have to Name a Bank as Trustee? (1:08)
• With a Revocable Living Trust, Do I Need to File a Tax Return? (0:51)
• Should I Name My Trust as the Beneficiary of My IRA? (1:12)
• What Is an Irrevocable Trust? (1:16)
• When Should I Set Up an Irrevocable Trust? (1:07)

Advance Directives

• What Is a Living Will? (0:52)
• Should I Give Someone a Power of Attorney? (0:47)

Inheritance Planning

• What Is the Best Way to Distribute My Property to My Children? (1:32)
• Do I Have to Leave My Estate Equally to My Children? (1:02)
• What Is the Best Way to Fund College Education for My Children and Grandchildren? (1:22)
• How Do I Protect the Inheritance of a Disabled Child? (0:54)
• Should I Include My Children’s Spouses as Beneficiaries of My Estate Plan? (1:10)
• How Do I Protect My Children’s Inheritance from Their Divorcing Spouses? (1:00)
• Can I Keep the Size and Nature of My Estate a Secret from My Children? (1:20)
• How Do I Disinherit a Child? (1:16)

Probate

• Can I Avoid Probate by Putting My Assets in Joint Tenancy? (1:14)
• What Is So Bad About Probate? (0:55)

Other Property and Planning Issues

• Should I Agree to Be Trustee of My Relatives’ Trust for Their Kids? (1:04)
• Does Property I Inherit Automatically Become Community Property? (1:11)
• What Are Digital Assets? (0:50)
• If I Own Real Estate, Should I Put It in an LLC? (0:54)
• Can I Set Up a Trust to Make Our Vacation Home Available to Our Children? (0:52)