Alaska Court System Self-Help

The Personal Representative gathers property of the person who died and manages it for the benefit of all interested persons, including creditors. You must treat creditors as fairly as those persons who will inherit property from the must treat creditors as fairly as those persons who will inherit property from the .

You need to pay the Family Allowance, Homestead Allowance or Exempt Property before paying the creditor claim. After paying the allowances and exempt property, if there is not enough money in the estate, you must pay the claims of creditors before any property can be transferred to heirs or devisees.

You must notify creditors that you have opened a probate and tell them how long they have to file claims. You do this by publishing a Notice to Creditors in the newspaper and by sending the Notice to certain creditors. You must review all of the claims filed by creditors and make a decision about whether they are valid. Some creditors do not need to file a claim to be paid from the estate.

If there is not enough money in the estate to pay all of the creditor claims, you must pay them in a very specific order. If the Inventory determines that the probate qualifies for a small estate, the Personal Representative can skip notifying and paying creditors. Read about small estates.

The Personal Representative must take reasonable steps to find all known creditors of the person who died. Below are some steps that you can take:

• Look through the person's home, office, safe and file cabinets. Collect and review all tax, legal and financial documents including checkbooks, bank statements, credit card statements, loan statements, cancelled checks, income tax returns, investment documents, contracts and judgments.
• Collect the person's mail and look for tax, legal and financial documents.
• Review the person's email, electronic accounts and computer hard drive for financial information, if appropriate.
• Talk to the person's family members, advisors and business partners about creditors who might have loaned money to the person.
• Search court records for judgments or liens in locations where the person lived or did business.
• You also need to look for unknown creditors by publishing a Notice once a week for three weeks in a row in a newspaper commonly read in the judicial district in which you filed the probate. It is a good idea to publish the Notice as soon as possible because probate cannot be closed until at least six months after the first date of publication. You may pay for the publication from estate funds. Keep the receipt for later accounting.

A creditor generally must bring a claim against the estate within these time periods:

There may be other time periods that apply in special situations. You should talk to a probate lawyer if you have any questions.

A Notice to Creditors tells creditors that you have opened a probate and that they have four months from the first date of publication to file claims against the estate or the estate will not have to pay the claims. You do not need to publish this Notice if the estate qualifies as a small estate.

You can file:

Notice to Creditors, P-341

You must publish the Notice once a week for three weeks in a row in a newspaper commonly read in the judicial district in which you filed the probate. It is a good idea to publish the Notice as soon as possible because you cannot be closed until at least six months after the first date of publication. You may pay for the publication from estate funds. Keep the receipt for later accounting.

After you publish the Notice, the newspaper will send you a document that lists the dates on which the Notice appeared in the newspaper. File the document with the court as proof of publication using:

Affidavit of Publication, P-342

The Personal Representative must mail or deliver the Notice to Creditors to creditors who have claims against the person who died or the estate about which you know or could reasonably find out. If you do not do this, these creditors will have three years from the date of the person's death to bring their claims against the estate. If one of these creditors files a claim after you have already paid the other creditors and transferred estate property and you did not mail or deliver notice to that creditor, you might have to pay the claim from your own personal funds if you could have reasonably found out about that creditor. The persons who inherited estate property might also have to return the property so that the creditor can be paid. To avoid this, you should make absolutely sure that you send the Notice to anyone who might have a claim

The creditor should prepare a document, usually called a "Claim Against Estate," that describes the claim. It must include:

• The name and address of the creditor.
• The amount of the claim.
• The nature of the claim.
• If the claim isn't due yet, when it will be due.
• If the claim is secured by property, what property secures the claim.
• If there is anything unknown about the claim, the creditor must explain what it is.

The creditor can use:

• Claim Against Estate, P-310

The creditor should submit its claim in one of the following ways:

• Mail or give the Claim Against Estate to the Personal Representative.
• File the Claim Against Estate with the court.
• File a lawsuit against the Personal Representative.

You should keep a list of claimants that file claims with you or the court. You can decide to pay or reject (disallow) claims as they come in or you can wait until the end of the four-month claim period that runs from the first date of publication of the Notice to Creditors.

Check Courtview to ensure that you have received a copy of all creditor claims that have been filed with the court when the time is up for creditor's to make a claim. See "All information" tab and look for "claimants". See case example. If a small estate, skip this step.

At the end of the four months, you will have an additional 60 days to make a decision on each claim. If you do nothing within the 60 days, the claim will be allowed at the end of the 60 days. It is the same as saying you agree with the claim. If you decide a claim is not valid you must file a Notice of Disallowance within the 60 days.

You can use:

Notice of Allowance or Disallowance of Claim, P-345

If you decide to reject a claim because you think it is not valid, you must send the claimant a Notice of Disallowance and file the Notice with the court.

You can send and file a Notice of Disallowance any time after the claim is filed but no later than 60 days after the four-month claim period ends. If you do not send a Notice of Disallowance within 60 days, it is the same as saying you agree with the claim.

You can use:

Notice of Allowance or Disallowance of Claim, P-345

The claimant will have 60 days from the date on which you mailed the Notice to either (1) petition the court to allow the claim or (2) file a court proceeding against you. If the claimant does not do either of these things, you do not have to pay the claim.

If the claimant does file a petition or proceeding, the court will schedule a hearing on the claim. You must tell the court why you disallowed the claim. You can also file documents or have persons testify to support the disallowance. The claimant can tell the court why the claim should be allowed and file documents or have persons testify to support the claim.

Yes. The table below shows when interest must be paid on a claim:

Yes. The Personal Representative must pay the Homestead Allowance and Family Allowance before all other claims, including creditor claims, debts, taxes and costs of probate. If there is not enough property in the estate to pay all of these special payments, pay the Homestead Allowance first, pay the Family Allowance second and determine the Exempt Property last. Even if the person who died made a will that disinherited the spouse or children, the Personal Representative must follow these rules – the personal representative still needs determine the exempt property and pay the allowances out of the estate. The spouse and children may disclaim their interest in receiving any allowances and exempt property, and would need to file a document with the court stating this.

Allowances and exempt property are special payments that the Personal Representative makes to family members of the person who died from estate property. They can total up to $55,000 (or more in some cases). These payments are in addition to any shares that the family members receive from the estate (unless the Will says something differently).

You need to distribute exempt property and pay the Family Allowance and Homestead Allowance before paying the creditor claims or transferring any property to heirs or devisees. The estate is considered "insolvent" if it does not have enough money to pay all valid creditor claims. In that case, it is very important to pay creditors in the right order. If you pay a creditor out of order and there is not enough money to pay creditors with a higher priority, you may have to reimburse the estate from your own personal funds.

If you have any doubts about whether the estate will have enough money to pay all claims, you should wait until after the four-month claim period ends to pay claims. You may need to wait even longer if you disallow a claim so that you know which claims will be allowed. It is a good idea not to transfer any property to the persons who are supposed to inherit it until all creditor claims are paid.

Creditors will often ask you to pay their claims before the four-month claim period ends. You should simply tell creditors that they must wait until the estate has a chance to look at all of claims that have been filed. If you think that the estate might be insolvent or have questions about how to pay creditor claims, you should talk to a probate lawyer.

Yes. If the estate does not have enough property to pay all creditor claims, the Personal Representative has the right to collect certain nonprobate property if all of the following conditions are met:

• The property was held by a financial company, such as a bank or credit union; and
• The property passed to a person by right of survivorship or to a payable on death beneficiary; and
• The creditor asks the Personal Representative to collect the property, in writing; and
• The Personal Representative files a court proceeding against the person who received the property within one year after the person's death.

The Personal Representative can recover this type of property from anyone who inherited this type of property. There is no specific order of priority. The person who inherited the property will have to give back the share that belonged to the person who died, up to the amount needed to pay the creditor claims. Any remaining funds belong to the person who inherited the funds and not to the estate. A person who is asked to give up property can bring others who received similar property into the same court action. Those persons will also have to give up their shares of funds to pay creditor claims.

If you need to collect property passing outside of probate to pay claims, you should talk to a probate lawyer.

Before the Personal Representative pays any creditor claims, the Personal Representative must determine the Exempt Property and pay the Homestead Allowance and Family Allowance. Then the creditor claims are sorted into classes. Each class has a different right to payment. The Personal Representative must pay all claims in the class with the highest priority first. If there are enough funds after those claims are paid in full, the Personal Representative can move to the next highest class and pay those claims. If there are not enough funds to pay all creditors in full in a certain class, the Personal Representative must apply the same percentage to all claims and pay them partially. After that, no other classes with a lower priority receive any payment.

The chart below lists classes of creditor claims, in order from the highest to the lowest right to be paid:

Yes, if you are sure that there will be enough money in the estate to pay all of the claims. For example, it is common to pay probate expenses as soon as they are due. You can also pay a valid claim even if the creditor does not file a claim.

You can deduct the amount that the creditor owes to the estate from the claim and pay the lower amount. For example, if a neighbor files a claim for the cost of tree removal that the neighbor did for the person who died but the person who died sold a snowmachine to the neighbor and was not paid for it, you can deduct the sales price of the snowmachine from the amount of the claim for tree removal services.

A secured creditor does not have to file a claim against the estate to enforce its right to take back the property. The agreement between the secured creditor and the person who died controls the creditor's rights. For example, if the secured creditor has the right to repossess a car, the creditor can take back the car if the person who died still owes money on the loan.

However, if it wants to make a claim for the entire amount owed under the loan, the secured creditor has to file a claim against the estate within four months from the first date of publication of the Notice to Creditors. For example, if the value of the property (such as a car) is not worth as much as the amount still owed on the loan, the creditor might want to claim the amount still owed on the loan. To file a claim for the full amount, the secured creditor must follow other special rules. You may want to talk to a probate lawyer if you are a secured creditor filing a claim for the amount owed on a debt or if you are a Personal Representative who has received a claim from a secured creditor for the amount owed on a debt.

Yes, if it is in the best interests of the estate. For example, you can pay off a mortgage on real property or the loan on a car. However, unless the Will says otherwise, this does not increase the share of the person who inherits the property. For more information, see Distribution of Estate Assets.

As soon as you find out that a person has died:

• File a Demand for Notice with the court in the judicial district where the person lived at the time of his or her death. The Personal Representative must send you a copy all documents that involve your interest in the estate. You can file:
  • Demand for Notice, P-305
• If you are a secured creditor, decide whether to rely on your rights to the property or file a claim for the loan balance.
• Review all newspapers that are commonly read in the judicial district where the probate is filed for publication of a Notice to Creditors.
• Mail a Claim Against Estate directly to the Personal Representative and file it with the court before the four-month claim period ends. Do not rely on sending invoices to the address of the person who died.
• If you do not receive a Notice to Creditors, file the claim as soon as you learn of the probate if it has been less than three years from the date of the person's death and the normal time under Alaska law for filing the claim has not ended.
• After the four-month claim period ends, ask the Personal Representative about your claim.
• If you do not hear from the Personal Representative within 60 days from the end of the four-month claim period, your claim has been allowed. Contact the Personal Representative and ask for payment.
• If the Personal Representative sends you a Disallowance of Claim within 60 days from the end of the four-month claim period, petition for allowance with the court or consider filing an action against the Personal Representative. You must do this within 60 days from the date that the Disallowance was mailed, even if the claim period has not ended.
• Make sure that the Personal Representative pays the proper rate of interest on your claim (if any).
• If the Personal Representative tells you that there is not enough money in the estate to pay your claim, ask to see the Inventory and ask about nonprobate bank accounts. If any accounts owned by the person who died have passed to a joint owner or a named beneficiary, tell the Personal Representative in writing you want him or her to collect these accounts to pay your claim. Be aware that the Personal Representative has only one year from the date of death to do this.
• File a petition asking the court for relief if you think that something is unfair.

You can learn more about the:

• Personal Representative Responsibilities
• Accounting Requirements
• Distribution of Estate Assets
• Federal Taxes
• Inventory & Management of Assets
• Transferring Ownership/Title of Assets