How Probate Works in Alaska

Probate is handled by the superior court. Most proceedings must start within three years after death. The main steps are: application for informal probate or petition for formal probate and appointment of a personal representative; letters issued; publishing notice to creditors once a week for three weeks; preparing an inventory within three months after appointment (sent to interested persons who ask, and optionally filed with the court); paying claims and distributing the estate; and closing.

If the inventory shows the estate is worth no more than the homestead allowance, exempt property, family allowance, administration costs, reasonable funeral expenses and last-illness medical costs, the personal representative may distribute the estate right away without notice to creditors and close it by filing a sworn closing statement (form P-350). The personal representative's appointment ends one year after the statement is filed if nothing is pending.

Creditors must present claims within four months after the first publication of the notice to creditors. If no notice is published, claims that arose before death are barred three years after death.

Priority for appointment: the person named in the will, then a surviving spouse who is a beneficiary, other beneficiaries, the surviving spouse, other heirs, and, 45 days after death, any creditor. A person under 19, or one the court finds unsuitable, cannot serve. The statute sets no Alaska residency requirement. A bond is required unless the will waives it, the heirs or beneficiaries file written waivers, or the personal representative is a qualified corporate fiduciary; the court can also excuse or change the bond.

Thirty days after death, a successor can collect the decedent's personal property (money owed, bank accounts, stock and other personal items) by giving the holder an affidavit, if the whole estate, after liens and debts, is no more than $100,000 in registered vehicles plus no more than $50,000 in other personal property, and no personal representative has been requested or appointed anywhere. The court's form is the Affidavit for Collection of Personal Property of Decedent (P-110). It cannot be used if the decedent owned real estate, except property held as tenants by the entirety or passing by a transfer-on-death deed.

Probate cases are generally handled by the Superior Court, filed in the judicial district where the person lived when they died. Once an original will is filed it becomes a permanent part of the court file. The Alaska Court System's public case search (CourtView, records.courts.alaska.gov) lets the public search trial court cases; some case records are not shown online or are removed after a period set by law or court rule.