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How to Avoid Probate in Alaska
Pillar GuideAlaska23 min read

How to Avoid Probate in Alaska

Avoid probate in Alaska with a recorded TOD deed, survivorship and POD accounts, a funded trust, or the 30-day affidavit for small estates.

By Settled Editorial

In Alaska, property skips probate when its title or its paperwork already names who takes it at death. The Alaska Court System lists the ways: real property under a recorded transfer-on-death deed, real property spouses hold as tenants by the entirety or as Alaska community property with a right of survivorship, property a trustee holds in trust, joint bank accounts with a right of survivorship, payable-on-death accounts, and life insurance and retirement money with a named beneficiary. After a death, the affidavit for collection of personal property lets a small estate with no probate real property skip the court case entirely.

Everything else goes to the Alaska Superior Court. You file in the judicial district where the person lived, and the Alaska probate guide covers that process if someone has already died.

The Court System says it plainly on its Transferring Ownership of Assets page: only property "that does not pass automatically to a survivor must go through a court process called probate." So planning comes down to one question for each asset. Does its title or contract already name a survivor?

Here is how each tool works in Alaska, the step that makes it work, and the catch most national pages leave out.

What You Are Planning Around

Alaska's court bill is modest. The Court System's Filing Fees and Fee Waiver page lists $250 for Probate of Estates, and the affidavit route below has no court fee at all.

The larger costs sit in time and paperwork. A personal representative publishes a notice to creditors, waits out a four-month claim period, files an inventory, and cannot close the estate until at least six months after first publication. The Alaska probate timeline walks through each clock. Time, privacy and a family's workload are the real reasons to plan around probate here.

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The Transfer-On-Death Deed

Alaska allows a transfer-on-death (TOD) deed for real property. The Court System publishes the form as P-150, Transfer on Death Deed (revision 7/20), and its footer cites AS 13.48. The form's revocation companion is P-151.

What the deed does

The Court System's Transfer on Death Deed page says that when you die, "this deed transfers the described real property to the named beneficiary, subject to any liens or mortgages (or other encumbrances) on the property at your death. Probate is not required."

Until then, nothing changes. The deed "has no effect until you die." You can revoke it at any time, and you stay free to sell or give the property to someone else during your life. If you no longer own the property when you die, the deed does nothing.

The two steps that make it work

  1. Acknowledge it. Sign the deed in front of a notary public or another official authorized to take acknowledgments. P-150 carries an acknowledgment block, not witness lines.
  2. Record it before death. Record the deed "in each recording district where any part of the property is located." The Court System is blunt: "The form has no effect unless it is acknowledged and recorded before your death."

A signed deed left in a drawer carries nothing. Alaska records land by recording district, not by borough, and the form links the Department of Natural Resources district list so you can find yours. The DNR Recorder's Office fee schedule charges $20 for the first page and $5 for each additional page, so a standard two-page P-150 costs $25 to record in each district.

P-150 also needs the property's legal description. The Court System says you can often find it on the deed you received when you bought the property, or at the recorder's office for that district.

What goes on the form

P-150 names a first-choice beneficiary who must survive you and an optional alternate beneficiary who takes if the first choice does not. It also lets you name a designated agent with authority to revoke the deed before your death. The form suggests getting legal advice before listing more than one first-choice beneficiary, because there is more than one way to leave property to several people.

Its notice to owners adds a warning worth reading twice: a TOD deed may affect a beneficiary's eligibility for public assistance and may affect creditors' rights.

Revoking one takes a recorded document

Form P-150 and the Court System page list three ways to revoke a recorded deed:

  1. Complete, acknowledge and record a Revocation of Transfer on Death Deed (P-151) in each recording district where the property sits.
  2. Complete, acknowledge and record a new TOD deed that disposes of the same property.
  3. Transfer the property to someone else during your life by a recorded deed that expressly revokes the TOD deed.

"You may not revoke the TOD deed by will." A will written years later that leaves the house to someone else does not undo a recorded TOD deed. Before recording, you can simply tear the deed up.

You do not have to tell the beneficiaries about the deed. The Court System still recommends it, because secrecy "can cause later complications and might make it easier for others to commit fraud." The full walk-through sits on an Alaska transfer on death deed.

The One-Year Creditor Window on TOD Property

A recorded TOD deed avoids probate. It does not wall the property off from the owner's debts right away.

The Court System says: "In Alaska, creditors have one year after your death to make a claim against real property that is transferred by a TOD deed." Buyers, title companies and mortgage lenders want clear title, so a beneficiary who wants to sell quickly may wait out that year. The Court System adds that some title companies ask the new owner to open a probate to notify creditors, "which defeats the purpose of the TOD deed." Meanwhile the beneficiary pays the property's expenses.

If your beneficiary is likely to sell fast, weigh that delay before you pick a TOD deed over a trust. The selling inherited property in Alaska guide covers what heirs face at the sale.

Tenancy by the Entirety and Community Property With Survivorship

Two forms of ownership between spouses carry real property to the survivor without probate. The Court System's Transferring Ownership of Assets page lists both.

Tenancy by the entirety. The Court System glossary describes it as ownership "available only to spouses where both spouses own the entire property together while they are alive and title automatically passes to the other spouse when one spouse dies." The Collecting Personal Property page treats a house that passed this way as outside the estate for the affidavit test.

Alaska community property with a right of survivorship. Alaska community property is opt-in. The Court System says spouses can choose it "by creating a special agreement or trust under the Alaska Community Property Act." Each spouse owns half. The couple decides whether, at the first death, the other half "passes automatically to the surviving spouse or passes through probate." Only the survivorship version avoids probate.

For either form, the surviving spouse does nothing to take the property. To sell or transfer it later, the Court System says the survivor records a new deed and a certified copy of the death certificate with the Recorder's Office in that recording district.

Community property brings a tax point too. The Court System's Federal Tax Matters page says that when spouses simply co-own property, only the half owned by the spouse who died gets a new tax basis at death. For community property, "the tax basis of the entire property is adjusted to the value at the date of the first spouse's death." Talk to a tax professional before choosing this route.

Two limits. Both forms need a married couple, so neither helps an unmarried partner, a child or a sibling. And both only delay probate until the survivor dies owning the property alone, unless the survivor then plans again.

Bank Accounts: Survivorship and Payable on Death

The account's terms decide everything here. The Court System's Transferring Ownership of Assets page gives the rules.

  • Joint account with a right of survivorship. A surviving spouse on the account takes the entire share of the person who died. If no surviving owner is a spouse, the surviving owners share equally. The bank needs a certified copy of the death certificate.
  • Joint account without a right of survivorship. The estate takes the entire share of the person who died, even if other owners survive. That money needs letters from a probate or the affidavit.
  • Convenience signer. Someone added "with the right to sign checks for convenience only" has "no right to any of the account funds at death."
  • Payable-on-death (POD) account. Each owner can name one or more POD beneficiaries. Surviving POD beneficiaries share equally. If none survive, the account goes to the owner's estate. On a joint survivorship account, only the POD beneficiary of the last surviving owner takes anything.
  • Community property account. With survivorship, the spouse takes the whole account. Without it, the estate does.

Next steps: call each bank and ask exactly how each account is titled. "Joint" alone does not tell you whether survivorship applies.

The one-year reach-back on bank money

The Court System's Debts and Creditors page lets a personal representative pull back certain nonprobate money when the estate cannot pay its creditors. It applies when all of these are true:

  1. A financial company, such as a bank or credit union, held the property.
  2. The property passed by right of survivorship or to a payable-on-death beneficiary.
  3. A creditor asks the personal representative, in writing, to collect it.
  4. The personal representative files a court proceeding against the recipient within one year after the death.

The recipient gives back the share that belonged to the person who died, up to the amount the creditors need. So a POD account avoids probate. It does not always avoid the estate's bills.

Investment Accounts, Life Insurance and Retirement Plans

Brokerage accounts "have their own forms of ownership," the Court System says, so read the account terms or ask the broker how each one passes.

Most life insurance, annuity and retirement plans let the owner name a beneficiary. The Court System warns that if the owner named their estate as beneficiary, the money must pass through probate. If the owner named no one, the plan itself sometimes names a default beneficiary. Keep every designation current, and name a backup.

Retirement benefits come with one more caution. The Court System's Trusts page says some property, "such as retirement benefits, cannot be owned by a trust," so you name the trust as beneficiary instead, and how the trust is written can change how the taxes get paid.

Vehicles: How the Title Reads

Alaska vehicle titles decide the route with one word. The DMV's Deceased Owner page and the Court System's chart agree:

  • "OR" between owners. The survivor takes the vehicle, and the estate is not involved.
  • "AND" between owners, or the person who died as sole owner. The vehicle becomes part of the estate. It moves by probate letters, or by the small-estate affidavit on DMV Form 827 when the estate qualifies.

Only titled vehicles work this way: cars, motorcycles, trucks, trailers and manufactured homes not permanently attached to land. The Court System says snowmachines, ATVs, tractors, off-road equipment, boats and aircraft have no DMV certificate of title and pass as untitled personal property. The Alaska vehicle title transfers page covers the DMV forms.

The 2026 vehicle and boat TOD title law is pending

The Court System's Transferring Ownership of Assets page reports that "In 2026, the Alaska Legislature passed a new law allowing boat and vehicle titles to be automatically transferred on death," with an application naming one or two beneficiaries filed with the DMV during the owner's life.

We could not confirm the law's section, its effective date or the DMV procedure. The DMV's Deceased Owner page, read on September 28, 2026, describes only the probate route and Form 827. It does not mention a TOD title or offer an application. Until the DMV publishes the process, plan as if an Alaska vehicle title still passes by "OR" wording, the estate, or the affidavit. Check the DMV page again before you rely on it.

The Revocable Living Trust

A revocable trust holds property in the trustee's name, so nothing in it goes through probate at death. The Court System's Trusts page explains it: "Because the Trustee is the legal owner of the trust property and not the settlor, it does not need to pass through probate when the settlor dies." If you serve as your own trustee, a successor trustee you name takes over at your death.

The trust only works for what you put in it. The Court System says that to avoid probate, "you will also need to transfer ownership of all of your property to the revocable trust or name the revocable trust as a beneficiary of your property." A house still in your own name at death goes to probate, trust or no trust. If the property carries a loan, check the terms first: the Court System notes some loans bar any transfer without the lender's consent.

A trust also does things a TOD deed cannot:

  • It can hold property for years. A trustee can manage money for a beneficiary until a set age, or for purposes you choose, such as education or medical care.
  • It protects young children. The Court System says that without a trust, a child's guardian can use an inheritance only for support until 18, and then "must give all remaining property to the child."
  • It avoids the TOD sale delay described above, because the trustee already holds title.

You still need a will. The Court System says only a will can name a guardian for a minor child, and a pourover will catches anything you forgot to move into the trust. That property passes through probate first, then into the trust. The Court System calls trusts "more complicated than Wills" and suggests an estate planning lawyer. Compare the options on a revocable living trust.

Alaska Assets With Their Own Rules

Some Alaska property follows rules that no deed, account form or trust changes.

  • ANCSA Native corporation stock. It passes by a "stock will" on the back of the certificate, or the corporation's own testamentary form, or else the owner's will. With none of those, the Court System says it goes all to the spouse if there are no descendants, half to the spouse and half to the descendants if there are, and under intestacy if there is no spouse. The Native corporation decides, not the probate court, and the stock counts as nonprobate property.
  • Restricted Native allotments and townsite lots. These pass only through a federal Bureau of Indian Affairs probate before a federal judge, "not through the Alaska probate court."
  • Limited entry fishing permits. A state limited entry permit can go to only one person. The Court System points to a form called Designation of Permit Recipient Upon Permit Holder's Death, and to a beneficiary designation for federal quota shares.
  • The Permanent Fund Dividend. A dividend owed to the person who died is collected by the personal representative or an affidavit successor. The application deadline is the end of the application period for the dividend year after the death, usually March 31.

After the Death: The Small-Estate Shortcuts

If nobody planned, Alaska still offers two routes that are lighter than a full probate.

The affidavit for collection of personal property

AS 13.16.680, as reproduced in Court System form P-110 (4/17), lets a successor collect personal property with an affidavit and no court case. The Collecting Personal Property page lists the conditions:

  1. At least 30 days have passed since the death.
  2. No one has started a probate case or asked the court to appoint a personal representative.
  3. The person who died owned no real property, "no matter how small the value," unless it passed automatically by tenancy by the entirety or a TOD deed.
  4. Alaska-registered vehicles total $100,000 or less after liens and debts.
  5. All other personal property totals $50,000 or less after liens and debts.

Those are two separate caps, not one pooled figure. The DMV's Form 827 is titled "Affidavit for an Estate with Assets of $150,000 or Less," but $120,000 of trucks and $10,000 of cash still fails, because the vehicles alone exceed $100,000. The Permanent Fund Dividend counts toward the $50,000. Nonprobate property, such as a joint survivorship account, does not count at all.

The successor signs under oath before a notary or a court clerk and hands a copy to whoever holds the property. The collected property still belongs to the rightful heirs or beneficiaries, not to the person who signed. Read the full test on the collection affidavit.

This is where planning pays off. A recorded TOD deed keeps a house from closing the affidavit route, because real property that passed by TOD deed does not count against condition 3.

Summary closing of a small estate

The Court System's Small Estates page describes a second route that is a probate case. You open an informal probate, file an inventory, and if the estate is small enough to be used up by the allowances, administration costs, funeral and last-illness expenses, the personal representative closes early with form P-350, the Sworn Statement of Personal Representative Closing Small Estate. The personal representative keeps their powers for one year after filing it. The $250 fee applies, because a case is open.

Taxes: Alaska Has None, the Federal Tax Still Counts Everything

The Court System's Federal Tax Matters page says: "As of 2005, Alaska no longer collects a state estate tax." It adds that estate taxes may be due in another state if the person lived there or owned property there.

Avoiding probate does not change the federal picture. The same page describes the federal estate tax as "a tax on all transfers of property at a person's death, including probate property and nonprobate property." A TOD deed, a POD account or a living trust keeps property out of court, not out of the federal gross estate. Federal estate tax still applies where the estate is large enough; take current figures from the IRS, not from older summaries.

Medicaid and Nonprobate Property

Alaska's Medicaid State Plan, posted by the Department of Health, defines the "estate" for Medicaid estate recovery in Attachment 4.17-A as property subject to the Alaska Uniform Probate Code. That is the probate estate. The plan does not list joint tenancy, life estates or living trusts in that definition. We could not read the Alaska Statutes behind it, so treat this as the State Plan's wording, not a promise, and check with the Department of Health before planning around it. The P-150 notice also warns that a TOD deed may affect a beneficiary's own eligibility for public assistance.

Digital Accounts

Email, photos, social media and online financial accounts follow each provider's terms and settings. List them, and record where your passwords live. The Alaska digital assets guide covers what a personal representative can reach.

What Does Not Avoid Probate

  • A will. A will directs probate property. It does not keep anything out of court.
  • A sole-name bank account with no POD beneficiary. It goes to the estate.
  • A joint account without survivorship. The share of the person who died goes to the estate.
  • A vehicle titled with "AND" or in one name. It goes to the estate or the affidavit.
  • A trust you never funded. Property left in your own name goes to probate.
  • An unrecorded TOD deed. It has no effect.
  • Naming your estate as beneficiary on insurance or a retirement plan. That sends the money into probate.

The Court System's Practical Steps to Take Before Death page also warns about leaving property directly to a minor child, because at 18 the child receives whatever remains "all at once to use any way they see fit."

An Alaska Checklist

  1. List every asset and how it is titled today.
  2. For real property, decide between a recorded P-150 TOD deed and a funded revocable trust. Weigh the one-year creditor window if your beneficiary will likely sell.
  3. Record any TOD deed in every recording district where the property sits, and keep the recorded copy.
  4. If you are married, ask whether tenancy by the entirety or a community property agreement or trust with survivorship fits your home.
  5. Confirm each bank account's survivorship terms and add POD beneficiaries where you want them.
  6. Update beneficiaries on life insurance, annuities and retirement plans, and name backups.
  7. Check vehicle titles for "OR" wording. Watch for the DMV to publish the 2026 TOD title process.
  8. Handle ANCSA stock wills, fishing permit designations and any restricted property separately.
  9. Sign a will, including a pourover will if you use a trust, and name a guardian for minor children.
  10. Review everything after a marriage, divorce, death, move or major purchase.

Pull these steps together with the rest of the full planning document set.

When to Talk to an Alaska Lawyer

The Court System's own pages point to a lawyer for several situations: a beneficiary who will want to sell a TOD property quickly, more than one first-choice beneficiary on a TOD deed, any trust, community property, and property that may need to be pulled back to pay creditors. A lawyer also helps with ANCSA stock, restricted allotments, blended families, and property in more than one state. The Alaska Bar Association runs a Lawyer Referral Service at (907) 272-0352.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Alaska have a transfer-on-death deed?

Yes. The Alaska Court System publishes form P-150, Transfer on Death Deed (revision 7/20), which cites AS 13.48. The owner signs it in front of a notary or other official who takes acknowledgments and records it in each recording district where any part of the property sits. The Court System says the form has no effect unless it is acknowledged and recorded before the owner's death. At death the property passes to the named beneficiary without probate, subject to any mortgage or lien.

Can an Alaska will revoke a transfer-on-death deed?

No. Form P-150 and the Court System's Transfer on Death Deed page list three ways to revoke a recorded deed: record a revocation on form P-151, record a new TOD deed for the same property, or transfer the property during life by a recorded deed that expressly revokes the TOD deed. Both say you may not revoke the TOD deed by will.

Can creditors reach property that skipped probate in Alaska?

For a year, yes. The Court System says creditors have one year after death to make a claim against real property passed by a TOD deed. For bank and credit union money that passed by survivorship or to a payable-on-death beneficiary, the personal representative can recover it for creditors if the estate is short, a creditor asks in writing, and the personal representative sues the recipient within one year after the death.

Does joint ownership avoid probate in Alaska?

Only when the title carries a right of survivorship. The Court System lists tenancy by the entirety between spouses and Alaska community property with a right of survivorship as ways real property passes without probate. A joint bank account passes to the surviving owners only if its terms create a right of survivorship. A vehicle titled with OR passes to the survivor, while a vehicle titled with AND goes into the estate.

Can Alaska vehicles and boats have a transfer-on-death title?

Not yet in a form we can confirm. The Court System reports that the Legislature passed a 2026 law letting owners apply to the DMV for a boat or vehicle title naming one or two beneficiaries. The DMV's Deceased Owner page, checked on September 28, 2026, does not describe that process or offer a form. Treat it as pending until the DMV publishes the procedure.

How much can pass by affidavit in Alaska without probate?

Registered vehicles worth up to $100,000 and other personal property worth up to $50,000, each figure after liens and debts, under AS 13.16.680 as reproduced in form P-110 (4/17). At least 30 days must pass after the death, no one can have asked the court to appoint a personal representative, and the person who died cannot have owned real property that needs probate, no matter how small its value.

Does avoiding probate avoid estate tax in Alaska?

Alaska has no estate tax to avoid. The Court System says that as of 2005 Alaska no longer collects a state estate tax. The federal estate tax is a separate matter, and the Court System says it reaches both probate and nonprobate property, so a TOD deed, joint account or living trust does not remove property from the federal count.

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Information current as of September 28, 2026

Settled Estate is not a law firm, and this content is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Probate laws and procedures in Alaska can change. Consult with a qualified attorney for advice specific to your situation. Full disclaimer.

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