{"id":151,"date":"2017-01-06T14:38:54","date_gmt":"2017-01-06T14:38:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.deeds.com\/articles\/?p=151"},"modified":"2024-04-25T23:21:09","modified_gmt":"2024-04-26T03:21:09","slug":"real-property-and-the-probate-process-in-alaska","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.deeds.com\/articles\/real-property-and-the-probate-process-in-alaska\/","title":{"rendered":"Real Property and the Probate Process in Alaska"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>What happens to an Alaskan\u2019s home after\ndeath? The answer depends largely on how the decedent vested title and whether\nhe or she took advantage of any estate planning tools available in Alaska. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>When real property is held by spouses\nas tenants by entirety, the surviving spouse automatically obtains title upon\nthe death of the first spouse. Alaska also recognizes a transfer on death deed\n(also called a beneficiary deed). When this deed is recorded prior to the\ngrantor\u2019s death, the property is not subject to probate. Rather, it\nautomatically transfers to the named beneficiary in the deed. Property held in\ntrust is also exempt from probate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Unless the title to real property\npasses automatically or a transfer on death deed is on record, the decedent\u2019s\nestate must go through probate. Probate is the court process of transferring a\ndecedent\u2019s property (real and personal) to the person(s) entitled to receive\nit. (Note: land granted by the Secretary of the Interior to Native Alaskans,\ndesignated as restricted property, passes through a separate probate process\nthrough the United States Bureau of Indian Affairs.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Alaska recognizes informal and formal\nprobate processes. Informal probate has more minimal court supervision and is the\nmost commonly used. Formal probate requires more court supervision, and is an\noption for cases that are less cut-and-dry, such as when a will is contested,\nor there are disputes between devisees (persons named in a will to receive a\ndecedent\u2019s property, also called a beneficiary) [1].<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>AS \u00a7 13.16.055 establishes the\nfollowing order for deciding the appropriate venue for probate\nproceedings:\nthe judicial district where the decedent was domiciled at the time of death; if\nnot domiciled in Alaska, any judicial district where the decedent owned\nproperty at the time of death or the domicile or principal place of business of\na fiduciary who comes into the control of the decedent\u2019s property and is\nsubject to Alaska law. If there is no will, the process of transferring assets\nto heirs is called intestate succession (codified at AS \u00a7 13.12.101-114). <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The probate process varies slightly\ndepending on whether the decedent left a will. A personal representative \u2013 the\nperson whose fiduciary duty is to settle the estate and distribute the\ndecedent\u2019s remaining assets according to law \u2013 is determined first by\ndesignation in a valid will (if applicable), and then in the following order:\nthe spouse of decedent, if a bequest is made within a will to him or her; a\ndevisee under a will; the spouse of the decedent, though no bequest is made to\nhim or her in a will; any heir of the decedent; and finally, any creditor of\nthe decedent after 45 days have passed (AS 13.16.065(a)). <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Administration of the estate officially\nbegins with the issuance of letters (AS 13.16.015). These are either letters of\nadministration (when the decedent dies without a will) or letters testamentary\n(when the decedent dies with a will), and confirm the personal representative\u2019s\nauthority to settling the decedent\u2019s estate. The personal representative must\ntake several intermediary steps before assets can be distributed or devised. Review\nAlaska Statues Title 13, resources through the probate court, and, as always,\nconsult a lawyer. Mistakes in estate administration may open the personal\nrepresentative to personal liability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The personal representative must\nexecute and record a deed to pass a decedent\u2019s title to real property. In\nAlaska, personal representatives generally use a quitclaim deed to transfer\ntitle to a relative of the deceased. The quitclaim deed provides no warranty of\ntitle, and is appropriate for a fiduciary, who \u201cdoes not know exactly what\ninterest the person who died had in the property and does not want the estate\nto be responsible for promises about the property\u201d [1]. In some circumstances,\nsuch as when a buyer is purchasing the property and is unrelated to the\ndecedent, a personal representative might offer a warranty deed after hiring a\ntitle company to research the title\u2019s history [1]. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The deed should meet all formatting and content requirements for documents pertaining to interest in real property in the State of Alaska, including the grantor\u2019s information, grantee information\u2019s and vesting, legal description of the subject property, and the source of the grantor\u2019s title. The personal representative\u2019s deed also requires the name of the decedent and the probate case number. Each personal representative must sign the deed in the presence of a notary public before recording in the recording district wherein the property is located.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.deeds.com\/forms\/alaska\/personal-representative-deed\/\">View the&nbsp;Alaska Personal Representative Deed Form<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Consult a lawyer who can give specific\nguidance on administering an estate in Alaska, as each situation is unique. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\">[1]h<a href=\"http:\/\/courts.alaska.gov\/shc\/probate\/probate-transferring-assets.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">ttp:\/\/courts.alaska.gov\/shc\/probate\/probate-transferring-assets.htm<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What happens to an Alaskan\u2019s home after death? The answer depends largely on how the decedent vested title and whether he or she took advantage of any estate planning tools available in Alaska.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-alaska","category-probate"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Real Property and the Probate Process in Alaska - Deeds.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Alaska recognizes informal and formal probate processes. Informal probate has more minimal court supervision and is the most commonly used. Formal probate requires more court supervision, and is an option for cases that are less cut-and-dry, such as when a will is contested, or there are disputes between devisees (persons named in a will to receive a decedent\u2019s property, also called a beneficiary)\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.deeds.com\/articles\/real-property-and-the-probate-process-in-alaska\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Real Property and the Probate Process in Alaska - Deeds.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Alaska recognizes informal and formal probate processes. Informal probate has more minimal court supervision and is the most commonly used. 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