Ketchikan Gateway Borough Warranty Deed (Reserving Life Estate) Form

An Alaska warranty deed reserving a life estate divides ownership across time in a single recorded instrument: the grantor keeps a life estate, with the exclusive right to live in the property and collect its rents and profits for life, and conveys the remainder in fee simple to the grantee. This form prepares that deed for one grantor and one grantee under the Alaska statutory warranty deed form, AS 34.15.030, with the reservation stated in the deed's own operative text.

One deed, two estates

Alaska law reads a deed generously toward the grantee: under AS 34.15.070, a conveyance passes all of the grantor's real estate unless a lesser estate appears by express terms or necessary implication. A deed that intends to keep a life estate therefore has to say so, expressly. This form carries a dedicated reservation section in which the grantor excepts and reserves a life estate for the grantor's lifetime, and states that what the grantee receives is the remainder in fee simple, vesting in possession at the grantor's death. At that death, possession passes by the terms of the recorded deed itself; the remainder holder's ownership does not wait on probate administration of the property.

The statutory warranty behind the transfer

The conveyance runs on the operative words of Alaska's statutory warranty deed, conveys and warrants. Under AS 34.15.030(b), a deed substantially in the statutory form carries three covenants: that the grantor holds an indefeasible fee simple title and has the right to convey; that the property is free from encumbrances; and that the grantor will defend the grantee's quiet and peaceable possession against all claimants. Those covenants bind the grantor and the grantor's heirs and personal representative as if written out in full, and AS 34.15.075 passes after-acquired title to the grantee by operation of law. The form frames the encumbrance covenant around a disclosed list: the deed recites the easements, plat notes, and other recorded matters the conveyance is subject to.

What the reservation keeps, and what it gives up

The reserved life estate is a present, completed arrangement. During life, the grantor holds possession, use, and income; the grantee holds a vested remainder. Because the remainder vests at delivery, a later sale or mortgage of the full fee simple involves both owners, and the grantor acting alone cannot undo the deed. Alaska places the revocable alternative in a different statute entirely: the transfer on death deed under AS 13.48, which transfers nothing until death and can be revoked, is a separate instrument recorded separately and is not part of this package. Alaska has no statute or controlling appellate decision recognizing an enhanced life estate, or lady bird, arrangement in which a life tenant keeps a power to sell without the remainder holder; the reservation this deed recites is the ordinary life estate.

Recording in Alaska's district system

Alaska records deeds through a statewide system of 34 recording districts administered by the DNR Recorder's Office, not through county offices, and the deed identifies the recording district where the property sits, as AS 40.17.030 requires. The same statute calls for the mailing address of each person granting or acquiring an interest and a return name and address with zip code, all of which have dedicated places on the form. The document is formatted to the recording regulations: a 2 inch top margin on the first page for the recorder's stamp, 1 inch margins elsewhere, and 10 point type on opaque white paper. Alaska charges $20 for the first recorded page and $5 for each additional page, Alaska imposes no statewide transfer tax and requires no transfer declaration, so the deed and the recording fee are the complete package presented at the recorder's office. Once recorded, the deed gives constructive notice under AS 40.17.080 and takes priority over later conveyances by unrecorded or junior claims.

The download contains the blank deed as a fillable PDF, a completed example showing the entire document filled in for a realistic Anchorage fact pattern, and a plain language guide that walks through every section, the signing and acknowledgment formalities, and the recording steps. The materials describe Alaska law in general terms and are not legal advice.