Alaska Transfer on Death Revocation

An Alaska transfer on death deed stays revocable for the owner's entire life, but the revocation has to reach the public record to count. Under AS 13.48.070, a recorded TOD deed is revoked only by a later recorded instrument, acknowledged after the deed it undoes and recorded before the owner dies, in the recording district where that deed is on file. This form prepares the instrument of revocation the Alaska Uniform Real Property Transfer on Death Act describes, carrying the revocation sentence from the optional statutory form in AS 13.48.130, for one owner or two owners who made the deed.

A revocation that lives or dies by its dates

Alaska measures a revocation by two dates. It is acknowledged by the transferor after the acknowledgment of the deed being revoked, and it is recorded before the transferor's death in the recording district where the deed is recorded; AS 13.48.070(a)(2) makes both conditions part of what it takes for the instrument to be effective at all. The form identifies the deed being revoked by its acknowledgment date, recording date, serial number, and recording district, all drawn from the recorded deed's first page or the recorder's index, and prints the statutory notice that the revocation must be recorded before death or it will not be effective.

A recorded transfer on death deed may not be revoked by a revocatory act on the deed, so destroying or marking the original changes nothing (AS 13.48.070(c)), and a will does not reach it. A beneficiary deed, the name many owners search for, is the same instrument under Alaska's statutory name, with the same revocation rules.

One owner or two, each as to that owner's interest

The form recites one or two natural persons who made the deed and now revoke it, in a free form owner block that takes each owner's name, marital status, and mailing address as they appear on the deed. It carries two signature blocks, headed OWNER and SECOND OWNER (if applicable), and a separate acknowledgment certificate for each, so two owners can acknowledge on different dates or before different officers; a sole owner leaves the second pair blank. The configuration does not reach an entity or trust as transferor, an agent revoking under a power of attorney, or three or more transferors.

Three owner patterns present this form in the record: a sole owner who made the deed and revokes it alone; spouses who made one deed as tenants by the entirety and both sign; and one of two transferors revoking as to that transferor's own interest, which AS 13.48.070(b)(1) permits while the deed stays in effect as to the other share. Where the transferors are joint owners with a right of survivorship, AS 13.48.070(b)(2) provides that the deed is revoked only by all of the living joint owners, and the form's capital letter paragraph states that rule beside the acknowledgment and recording conditions.

The statutory sentence, verbatim

AS 13.48.130 prints an optional form of revocation and states that the chapter governs the effect of that form or any other revoking instrument. This form's operative section carries the statutory sentence word for word, I revoke all my previous transfers of this property by transfer on death deed, framed as the declaration of each owner who signs, and adds an express revocation of the identified deed in its entirety as to each signing owner's interest. The Alaska Court System's form P-151 is built on the same sentence; no statute requires that court form.

Built for the Alaska recorder's office

Alaska records by recording district through the Department of Natural Resources, not by county, and the form carries two elements the recording statute requires: the recording district under AS 40.17.030(a)(9), and the serial number of the deed being revoked, the prior reference AS 40.17.030(a)(6) requires of a document that modifies or releases a recorded one. Page one leaves the top two inches blank for the recorder's stamp as 11 AAC 06.040 requires, the body prints at 12 point against the regulation's 10 point floor, and the acknowledgment certificates follow the AS 09.63.100 short form with the judicial district venue line Alaska notaries use.

The package includes the fillable form, a completed example filled in for a realistic Anchorage Recording District fact pattern, and the guide that walks through every numbered section and the recording process. This description and the guide describe the form and the governing Alaska statutes in general terms; they are not legal advice.