Title 13, Decedents' Estates, Guardianships, Transfers, Trusts, and Health Care Decisions

If there is no taker under this chapter, (1) personal property in the intestate estate passes to the state and is subject to AS 34.45.280 — 34.45.780; if notice to heirs, substantially equivalent to that required by AS 34.45.310, has been given by the personal representative or o…

(a) If, under AS 13.12.103(1), all or part of a decedent's intestate estate passes by representation to the decedent's descendants, the estate or part of the estate passing is divided into as many equal shares as there are (1) surviving descendants in the generation nearest to th…

Relatives of the half blood inherit the same share they would inherit if they were of the whole blood.

An individual in gestation at a particular time is treated as living at that time if the individual lives 120 hours or more after birth.

(a) If an individual dies intestate as to all or a portion of the individual's estate, property the decedent gave during the decedent's lifetime to an individual who, at the decedent's death, is an heir is treated as an advancement against the heir's intestate share only if (1) t…

A debt owed to a decedent is not charged against the intestate share of any individual except the debtor. If the debtor fails to survive the decedent, the debt is not taken into account in computing the intestate share of the debtor's descendants.

An individual is not disqualified to take as an heir because the individual or another individual through whom the individual claims is or has been an alien.

An individual who is related to the decedent through two lines of relationship is entitled to only a single share based on the relationship that would entitle the individual to the larger share.

(a) Except as provided in (b) — (d) of this section, for purposes of intestate succession by, through, or from a person, an individual is the child of the individual's natural parents, regardless of their marital status, and the parent and child relationship may be established as…

(a) In AS 13.12.201 — 13.12.204 and 13.12.206 — 13.12.214, “decedent's nonprobate transfers to others” means the amounts that are included in the augmented estate under AS 13.12.205. (b) In AS 13.12.201 — 13.12.214, (1) “fractional interest in property held in joint tenancy with …

(a) The surviving spouse of a decedent who dies domiciled in this state has a right of election, under the limitations and conditions stated in AS 13.12.201 — 13.12.214, to take an elective share amount equal to one-third of the augmented estate. (b) If the sum of the amounts des…

Subject to AS 13.12.208, the value of the augmented estate, to the extent provided in AS 13.12.204 — 13.12.207, consists of the sum of the values of all property, whether real or personal, movable or immovable, tangible or intangible, wherever situated, that constitute the decede…

The value of the augmented estate includes the value of the decedent's probate estate, reduced by funeral and administration expenses, homestead allowance, family allowances, exempt property, and enforceable claims.

(a) The value of the augmented estate includes the value of the decedent's nonprobate transfers to others, not included under AS 13.12.204, of any of the following types, in the amount provided respectively for each type of transfer: (1) property owned or owned in substance by th…

Excluding property passing to the surviving spouse under 42 U.S.C. 301 — 1397f (Social Security Act), the value of the augmented estate includes the value of the decedent's nonprobate transfers to the decedent's surviving spouse, which consist of all property that passed outside …

(a) Except to the extent included in the augmented estate under AS 13.12.204 or 13.12.206, the value of the augmented estate includes the value of (1) property that was owned by the decedent's surviving spouse at the decedent's death, including (A) the surviving spouse's fraction…

(a) The value of property is excluded from the decedent's nonprobate transfers to others (1) to the extent the decedent received adequate and full consideration in money or money's worth for a transfer of the property; or (2) if the property was transferred with the written joind…

(a) In a proceeding for an elective share, the following are applied first to satisfy the elective share amount and to reduce or eliminate any contributions due from the decedent's probate estate and recipients of the decedent's nonprobate transfers to others: (1) amounts include…

(a) Only original recipients of the decedent's nonprobate transfers to others, and the donees of the recipients of the decedent's nonprobate transfers to others, to the extent the donees have the property or its proceeds, are liable to make a proportional contribution toward sati…

(a) Except as provided in (b) of this section, the election shall be made by filing in the court and mailing or delivering to the personal representative, if any, a petition for the elective share within nine months after the date of the decedent's death, or within six months aft…

(a) The right of election may be exercised only by a surviving spouse who is living when the petition for the elective share is filed in the court under AS 13.12.211(a). If the election is not exercised by the surviving spouse personally, it may be exercised on the surviving spou…

(a) The right of election of a surviving spouse and the rights of the surviving spouse to homestead allowance, exempt property, and family allowance, or to any of them, may be waived, wholly or partially, before or after marriage, by a written contract, agreement, or waiver signe…

(a) Although under AS 13.12.205 a payment, item of property, or other benefit is included in the decedent's nonprobate transfers to others, a payor or other third party is not liable for having made a payment or transferred an item of property or other benefit to a beneficiary de…

(a) If a testator's surviving spouse married the testator after the testator executed the testator's will, the surviving spouse is entitled to receive, as an intestate share, no less than the value of the share of the estate the surviving spouse would have received if the testato…

(a) Except as provided in (b) of this section, if a testator fails to provide in the testator's will for the testator's children born or adopted after the execution of the will, the omitted after-born or after-adopted child receives a share in the estate as follows: (1) if the te…

Except as provided in AS 13.06.068, AS 13.12.401 — 13.12.405 apply to the estate of a decedent who dies domiciled in this state, and rights to homestead allowance, exempt property, and family allowance for a decedent who dies not domiciled in this state are governed by the law of…

A decedent's surviving spouse is entitled to a homestead allowance of $27,000. If there is no surviving spouse, each minor child and each dependent child of the decedent is entitled to a homestead allowance amounting to $27,000 divided by the number of minor and dependent childre…

In addition to the homestead allowance, the decedent's surviving spouse is entitled from the estate to a value, not exceeding $10,000 in excess of security interests in the items, in household furniture, automobiles, furnishings, appliances, and personal effects. If there is no s…

(a) In addition to the right to homestead allowance and exempt property, the decedent's surviving spouse and minor children whom the decedent was obligated to support and children who were in fact being supported by the decedent are entitled to a reasonable allowance in money out…

(a) If the estate is otherwise sufficient, property specifically devised may not be used to satisfy rights to homestead allowance or exempt property. Subject to this restriction, the surviving spouse, guardians of minor children, or children who are adults may select property of …

An individual 18 or more years of age who is of sound mind may make a will.

(a) Except as provided in (b) of this section, AS 13.06.068, AS 13.12.506, and 13.12.513, a will must be (1) in writing; (2) signed by the testator or in the testator's name by another individual in the testator's conscious presence and by the testator's direction; and (3) signed…

(a) A will may be simultaneously executed, attested, and made self-proved, by acknowledgment of the will by the testator and affidavits of the witnesses, each made before an officer authorized to administer oaths under the laws of the state in which execution occurs and evidenced…

(a) An individual generally competent to be a witness may act as a witness to a will. (b) The signing of a will by an interested witness does not invalidate the will or a provision of it.

Except as provided by AS 13.06.068, a written will is valid if executed in compliance with AS 13.12.502 or if its execution complies with the law at the time of execution of the place where the will is executed or of the law of the place where, at the time of execution or at the …

(a) A will or a part of a will is revoked (1) by executing a subsequent will that revokes the previous will or part expressly or by inconsistency; or (2) by performing a revocatory act on the will, if the testator performed the act with the intent and for the purpose of revoking …

Except as provided in AS 13.12.803 and 13.12.804, a change of circumstances does not revoke a will or a part of it.

(a) If a subsequent will that wholly revoked a previous will is thereafter revoked by a revocatory act under AS 13.12.507(a)(2), the previous will remains revoked unless it is revived. The previous will is revived if it is evident from the circumstances of the revocation of the s…

A writing in existence when a will is executed may be incorporated by reference if the language of the will manifests this intent and describes the writing sufficiently to permit its identification.

(a) A will may validly devise property to the trustee of a trust established or to be established (1) during the testator's lifetime by the testator, by the testator and some other person, or by some other person, including a funded or unfunded life insurance trust, although the …

A will may dispose of property by reference to acts and events that have significance apart from their effect upon the dispositions made by the will, whether they occur before or after the execution of the will or before or after the testator's death. The execution or revocation …

Whether or not the provisions relating to holographic wills apply, a will may refer to a written statement or list to dispose of items of tangible personal property not otherwise specifically disposed of by the will, other than money. To be admissible under this section as eviden…

(a) A contract to make a will or devise, or not to revoke a will or devise, or to die intestate, if executed after January 1, 1997, may be established only by (1) provisions of a will stating material provisions of the contract; (2) an express reference in a will to a contract an…

A will may be deposited by the testator or the testator's agent with a court for safekeeping, under rules of the court. During the testator's lifetime, the will must be kept confidential. During the testator's lifetime, a deposited will shall be delivered only to the testator or …

After the death of a testator and on request of an interested person, a person having custody of a will of the testator shall deliver it with reasonable promptness to a person able to secure its probate and, if the person with custody does not know of a person able to secure the …

A provision in a will purporting to penalize an interested person for contesting the will or instituting other proceedings relating to the estate is unenforceable if probable cause exists for instituting proceedings.