Probate in Alaska: do you need a lawyer, and what it costs

Settling an estate in Alaska

What an executor deals with after the funeral: the will, the court, creditors, tax and closing the estate. Each fact links to the statute it comes from and shows the date we last read it.

Filing the original will

In Alaska, if you hold the original will of the person who died, you must hand it over with reasonable promptness, when an interested person asks, to someone who can get it probated, or to the court if you don't know of anyone. The law sets no fixed number of days.

AS 13.12.516Read the statute · akleg.govchecked Oct 5, 2026

Which court handles probate

In Alaska, probate is handled by the superior court in the judicial district where the person who died was living. For someone who lived out of state, it can be opened in any Alaska judicial district where they had property.

AS 13.16.055; AS 13.06.050(8); AS 13.06.065Read the statute · akleg.govchecked Oct 5, 2026

Creditors' deadline to make claims

In Alaska, the executor or administrator (called the personal representative) must publish a notice to creditors once a week for three weeks in a local newspaper. Creditors then have four months from the first publication to present claims. If no notice is published, claims are cut off three years after the death.

AS 13.16.450, 13.16.460Read the statute · akleg.govchecked Oct 5, 2026

Estate inventory

In Alaska, the executor or administrator must prepare an inventory of what the person who died owned, with values as of the date of death, within three months after appointment. It can be filed with the court or mailed, and a copy goes to anyone interested who asks.

AS 13.16.365Read the statute · akleg.govchecked Oct 5, 2026

The order estate debts are paid

In Alaska, if the estate cannot pay every bill, the executor or administrator pays administration costs first, then funeral expenses, then federal priority debts and taxes and past due child support, then last illness medical bills, then state priority debts and taxes, then everything else.

AS 13.16.470Read the statute · akleg.govchecked Oct 5, 2026

State estate and inheritance tax

Alaska has no inheritance tax, and in practice no estate tax for current deaths. Its estate tax law is still on the books but is measured by the old federal credit for state death taxes, which no longer exists.

AS 43.31.011Read the statute · akleg.govchecked Oct 5, 2026

Closing an estate

In Alaska, most estates are closed by the executor or administrator filing a sworn closing statement with the court, no earlier than six months after appointment and more than six months after the creditor notice first ran, saying all claims, expenses and taxes are handled and the property has been given out. A copy and a full account go to the heirs.

AS 13.16.620, 13.16.625, 13.16.630Read the statute · akleg.govchecked Oct 5, 2026