Alaska Estate Planning Kit — Wills, Trusts & PFD Protection

The Last Frontier Planning System — Because Generic Estate Plans Break in Alaska

You've been meaning to do this for years. Every time you start, you hit the same wall: the national guides don't mention the Permanent Fund Dividend. The online templates don't know about ANCSA share transfers. The free court forms don't explain what they're for or which ones apply to your situation. And the attorney quotes come back at $1,500 to $4,500 — for a plan you're not even sure you need yet.

Meanwhile, here's what Alaska law does with your estate if you die tomorrow with nothing in place:

• Your spouse doesn't get everything. If you have children from a prior relationship, your spouse gets only the first $150,000 plus 50% of the remainder. The rest goes to those children — regardless of their age or your wishes.
• Your PFD dies with you. The estate has until March 31 to file a claim or forfeit over $1,000. If nobody knows the deadline exists, the money disappears.
• Your ANCSA shares enter corporate intestacy. Without a Testamentary Disposition on file, your corporation distributes your shares under default rules — a process that freezes dividends and can take years to resolve.
• Your cabin triggers mandatory probate. Any real property held solely in your name — regardless of value — cannot transfer through the small estate affidavit. Your family faces court proceedings, attorney fees, and months of waiting.
• Your medical wishes go to a statutory default list. Without an advance health care directive, a winter emergency means the hospital follows AS 13.52.030's priority hierarchy — which may put the wrong person in charge of life-or-death decisions while you're physically unreachable.

The Alaska Basic Estate Planning Kit is the Last Frontier Planning System — a structured workbook that translates Alaska's unique legal landscape into clear decisions you can make this week, not someday.

What Makes This Different From Every Other Estate Planning Resource

National platforms (LegalZoom, Trust & Will, Nolo) write for generic common-law states and insert "Alaska" into the title. They miss the five things that make planning here fundamentally different:

• Community property opt-in. Alaska is the only common-law state where married couples can elect community property treatment for specific assets — potentially saving tens of thousands in capital gains taxes at death. No national platform mentions this because no other state has it.
• ANCSA share governance. Native Corporation stock operates under federal law, not state probate. It requires its own transfer document filed directly with the issuing corporation. Online will-makers don't generate Testamentary Disposition Forms.
• Centralized recording districts. Recording a Transfer on Death Deed in the wrong one of Alaska's 34 districts makes it legally ineffective. The DNR system is unlike any other state's county-based recording.
• PFD beneficiary planning. The Permanent Fund Dividend is a post-mortem asset with a hard annual deadline. It requires proactive planning — not just a will.
• Physical isolation as a planning factor. Powers of attorney and healthcare directives aren't paperwork exercises in Alaska — they're the difference between a medical crisis that gets handled and one that spirals because nobody has legal authority and the nearest court is a bush flight away.

The kit covers all five. In plain English. With worksheets that walk you through each decision.

Inside the Kit — 17 Chapters Plus Planning Checklist

• Wills and execution requirements — Alaska's two-witness rule, notarization for self-proving status, holographic will validity, and the common template mistakes that invalidate documents
• Probate avoidance decision tree — Which assets bypass probate automatically (joint tenancy, POD/TOD, beneficiary designations) and which require affirmative action to keep out of court
• Small estate affidavit qualification — The bifurcated thresholds ($100,000 vehicles / $50,000 other personal property), the real estate disqualifier, and the 30-day waiting period
• Community property election worksheets — When the opt-in creates tax savings, when it creates risk, and how to execute the written agreement
• ANCSA share transfer planning — Testamentary Disposition Forms, fractional share freeze policies, non-Native voting restrictions, corporate dividend flow after death
• PFD protection planning — Qualifying year rules, documentation requirements, and March 31 deadline coordination with your personal representative
• Transfer on Death Deeds (AS 13.48) — Recording district identification, centralized DNR filing, fee structures, e-recording access, and the irrevocability rule
• Durable Power of Attorney — Financial management authority, springing vs. immediate powers, agent selection criteria for remote Alaskan realities
• Advance Health Care Directive — The statutory proxy hierarchy, POLST forms, and why geographic isolation makes this document genuinely urgent
• Guardianship delegation — Form PG-700 temporary delegation (no court, up to one year) and testamentary nomination for permanent guardianship
• Medevac membership integration — LifeMed Alaska, Guardian Flight/AirMedCare, Airlift Northwest coverage and costs, and how to prevent a $10,000–$25,000 balance bill from devastating the estate you're building
• Trust options — Revocable living trusts, the Alaska Domestic Asset Protection Trust, dynasty trusts with no perpetuities rule, and the decision framework for when a trust actually beats a will-plus-TOD approach
• Digital assets and remote property — Password management, cryptocurrency access, off-grid land with unclear boundaries, properties in unorganized boroughs
• Ancillary probate for non-residents — What out-of-state property owners need to know about Alaska's probate reach
• Fee and cost planning — Court filing costs, recording fees, attorney fee ranges by complexity level, and what you can handle yourself vs. what requires professional help
• 30-day action plan — The sequenced implementation roadmap that turns planning into execution

Plus 10 standalone printable worksheets: Beneficiary Audit Worksheet, Probate Avoidance Decision Tree, Community Property Election Worksheet, ANCSA Share Transfer Planning, PFD Deadline Reference, TOD Deed Filing Guide, Medevac Membership Comparison, 30-Day Action Plan, Cost and Fee Reference, Intestacy Distribution Rules, and Digital Asset Inventory. Print what you need, bring it where it matters.

Plus: The Alaska Estate Planning Checklist — a 22-item reference covering every essential planning step. Available as the free download so you can assess your gaps before committing to the full kit.

Who This Kit Serves

• Married couples who want to understand Alaska's intestate succession, community property election, and joint ownership options before deciding on a plan
• Parents with minor children who need both emergency delegation authority and permanent guardianship nominations — especially families in remote areas
• Native Corporation shareholders who haven't filed a Testamentary Disposition and risk default distribution of shares
• Remote property owners whose cabins, recreational land, or off-grid acreage will trigger probate without a recorded TOD deed
• Retirees on fixed incomes who need probate avoidance and Medicaid estate recovery protection without $4,500 in attorney fees
• Out-of-state adult children trying to help aging parents in Alaska organize their affairs before a crisis forces the issue
• Anyone preparing for an attorney meeting who wants to arrive organized, informed, and ready to make decisions — not paying $327/hour for document gathering

Why Not Just Use Free Resources?

The Alaska Court System provides forms. The PFD Division has an estate application. Each Native Corporation has its own TD instructions. The DNR publishes recording district maps. The information exists — scattered across five agencies, none of which explains how their piece connects to the others.

Here's what free resources give you:

• Court Self-Help Center: Forms P-110, P-150, PG-700 — without guidance on which ones apply to your situation or how they interact
• National platforms: Templates for $99–$599/year that ignore community property elections, ANCSA transfers, PFD deadlines, and the centralized recording system
• Attorney consultations: Accurate but starting at $327/hour — and in rural Alaska, potentially unavailable at any price

The kit gives you the synthesis — which documents you need, why Alaska law requires each one, what information you need to complete them, and the implementation sequence that ensures nothing falls through the cracks. The organizing layer that free forms and expensive attorneys both assume you already have.

Your Investment

The kit is — a one-time purchase. No subscription. No membership. No recurring fees. Seventeen chapters, planning worksheets, decision trees, a 30-day action plan, and the Alaska Estate Planning Checklist. Instant download as a printable PDF you can work through at your kitchen table.

That's less than fifteen minutes of attorney time at Alaska's average hourly rate. Less than one month of a national legal platform subscription. Less than what you'd spend driving to Anchorage from most of the state.

Try it. Download the kit. Work through the decision trees. If the worksheets don't clarify exactly which documents you need and why — email us and we'll make it right.

Start Tonight or Start Free

The full Alaska Basic Estate Planning Kit gives you the complete planning system — 17 chapters, every Alaska-specific decision, worksheets, and the 30-day action plan.

Not ready? Download the free Alaska Estate Planning Checklist — 22 items covering will status, beneficiary review, ANCSA stock will, PFD protection, TOD deeds, POA, healthcare directive, guardianship, and medevac membership. Five minutes to identify every gap in your current plan.

Alaska's laws don't pause because you haven't gotten around to planning. The PFD deadline runs. The intestacy statute controls. The ANCSA shares default. Every week without a plan is a week your family's outcome is determined by statutes you haven't read — not decisions you've made. The kit puts those decisions in your hands.