Alaska

Alaska estates are heard in the Superior Court. Alaska has adopted the Uniform Probate Code,
so the familiar routes apply: informal probate on the paperwork through the registrar,
formal probate before a judge where something is disputed, and unsupervised administration
by default.

Two major asset types never enter probate at all

This is the part of Alaska estate administration that has no equivalent anywhere else, and getting
it wrong wastes months.

• ANCSA settlement common stock — shares in an Alaska Native regional or village corporation —
  is not subject to probate. It is inalienable stock, and the corporation itself handles
  the transfer. Shareholders record their wishes on a stock will form obtained from their
  corporation; failing that, the stock passes by will or intestate succession under the special
  statutory rules. A dispute over who is entitled goes to the Superior Court as an independent
  action.
• Native land allotments are held in trust by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. They can be
  left by will, but the transfer is handled administratively by the BIA, not by the probate
  court.

If either applies, contact the corporation and the BIA early. A personal representative who
inventories ANCSA stock as an estate asset and waits for the court to deal with it will be waiting
a long time.

No death tax, no income tax

Alaska levies no estate tax, no inheritance tax and no state income tax. Only the federal return
can arise.

Practical matters

Remember the deceased's final Permanent Fund Dividend, which may still be payable to the
estate. And in a state where many communities have no road access, allow properly for the time
and cost of getting to property.

An Alaska will must be in writing, signed by the testator (or by another in the testator's
conscious presence and at their direction), and signed by at least two witnesses. The testator
must be 18 or older and of sound mind.

Holographic wills are valid

Under AS 13.12.502, a will is valid whether or not witnessed if the signature and the
material portions are in the testator's handwriting. The rest may be printed. Alaska requires
only the material portions, not the whole document — a more forgiving rule than the older
"wholly in your own hand" states.

Alaska does not require a date. Write one anyway.

Use a stock will for ANCSA shares

If you hold ANCSA settlement common stock, your ordinary will is not the best instrument for
it. Your Native corporation issues a stock will form, and using it is the cleanest way to
direct where the shares go. The rules on who may inherit inalienable stock are statutory and
narrower than for other property, so ask the corporation rather than assuming your will can
simply give it to anyone.

The same goes for a BIA trust allotment — it passes under a will, but the process runs through
the Bureau, not the court.

Alaska's trust and community property options

Alaska pioneered the American asset protection trust and is one of only three states — with
South Dakota and Tennessee — that lets married couples opt into community property by
agreement or through a community property trust. Both are specialist arrangements with real tax
consequences. If you have one, the will must be drafted alongside it.

Also

• Name an alternate personal representative and waive bond.
• A surviving spouse has an elective share whatever the will says.
• Review after a marriage, divorce, birth or a move to Alaska.

Yes. An Alaska personal representative is entitled to reasonable compensation for services
performed. Alaska prescribes no percentage.

What "reasonable" turns on

The size and nature of the estate, the time actually required, the complexity and difficulty of
the work, the skill it demanded, the responsibility assumed, and the results achieved.

Records decide it

With no schedule to point at, contemporaneous time records are the argument. Dated entries
from the first week showing what was done and how long it took.

Keep compensation and travel strictly apart

This matters more in Alaska than in any other state. Flights to a village with no road access,
charter aircraft where nothing scheduled goes, accommodation, and freight are expenses,
reimbursed in full and claimed separately. Compensation pays for the representative's time and
responsibility.

Alaskan representatives routinely undercharge by folding thousands of dollars of genuine travel
into a single percentage and then feeling they cannot justify the total. Separate the two and both
become defensible.

Unsupervised means unreviewed, not approved

Nobody examines the fee as it is taken under unsupervised administration. An interested person may
petition the Superior Court afterwards, and the burden of justifying it sits with the
representative. Agree it in writing with the beneficiaries first.

If the will fixes the figure

A will provision governs. Under the UPC framework the representative may also renounce it before
qualifying and take reasonable compensation instead.

Tax

Compensation is taxable income federally. Alaska has no state income tax, so there is no
state bite — but equally no Alaska death tax for the fee to be deducted against. A family
representative who is also a beneficiary still usually gains nothing by taking one.

An Alaska personal representative is reimbursed from the estate for the reasonable expenses of
administration, separately from compensation. Here, as in the northern territories of Canada, the
expenses are frequently the larger number — and they are entirely legitimate.

Normally claimable

• Funeral, burial or cremation, and a reception. Repatriation of remains from a village or
  from outside the state is a real and claimable cost.
• Superior Court filing fees, certified letters, certified death certificates, and publication of
  the notice to creditors.
• Attorney's fees, and accountant's fees for the final Form 1040 and any Form 1041.
• Appraisals of real property, cabins, aircraft, boats and commercial fishing permits and
  quota, vehicles, snowmachines and equipment. Fishing permits and IFQ do not transfer like
  ordinary property and need specialist handling.
• Travel on estate business — scheduled flights, charter aircraft where nothing else flies,
  vehicle hire, fuel, accommodation and mileage on long highway drives.
• Carrying costs on estate property until sale: insurance, utilities, heating fuel through the
  winter, security and maintenance. A house allowed to freeze is a total loss, not a saving.
• Freighting contents south by barge or air, which is expensive and often the only option.
• Interpretation where beneficiaries or documents require it.
• Bond premiums where bond was not waived.

Normally not claimable

• The representative's lost wages, meals near home, or personal spending.
• Costs run up for one beneficiary's convenience rather than the estate's.
• Improvements beyond preparing a property for sale as it stands.
• Anything without a receipt.

The rule that decides it

Open an estate bank account, run everything through it, and keep a dated log of every flight
with the reason for it. These numbers look extraordinary to anyone reading them from the Lower 48;
the log is what shows each one was necessary.

Most Alaska estates are administered by a family member. Corporate fiduciaries are thinner on the
ground here than in the Lower 48, so the practical question is usually how much professional help
the family representative needs — and the answer is paid by the estate.

Consider professional involvement when

• The estate holds ANCSA settlement common stock or a BIA trust allotment. Neither goes
  through probate, both have their own statutory rules about who may inherit, and both are handled
  by institutions the family may never have dealt with. This is the strongest Alaska case.
• There are commercial fishing permits, IFQ or quota shares. These are valuable, transferable
  only under regulatory conditions, and easy to let lapse.
• The estate holds a lodge, guiding or outfitting operation, an aircraft, or remote property
  that must be reached and maintained.
• The deceased had an Alaska asset protection trust or a community property trust, which
  must be coordinated with the probate estate.
• The named representative lives outside Alaska, which is common, and cannot realistically
  travel to a fly-in community.
• There is conflict among the beneficiaries, or a beneficiary is a minor or incapacitated.

What it costs

Expect hourly billing from an Alaska attorney rather than a percentage. Where a trust company will
act at all, expect a percentage with a minimum fee that makes most Alaska estates uneconomic. Ask
in writing.

Middle ground

Appoint a family member, waive bond, and let them retain an Alaska attorney at the estate's
expense — plus, where ANCSA stock or permits are involved, someone who deals with those
specifically. Contact the Native corporation and the BIA in the first fortnight.

A named representative who does not want the job can decline before appointment.