(a) A personal representative is a fiduciary who shall observe the standards of care applicable to trustees under Alaska Stat. § 13.36.225 – 13.36.290. A personal representative is under a duty to settle and distribute the estate of the decedent in accordance with the terms of any probated and effective will and Alaska Stat. Chapter 13.06 – Alaska Stat. Chapter 13.36, and as expeditiously and efficiently as is consistent with the best interests of the estate. A personal representative shall use the authority conferred by Alaska Stat. Chapter 13.06 – Alaska Stat. Chapter 13.36, the terms of the will, if any, and any order in proceedings to which the personal representative is party for the best interests of successors to the estate.
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Terms Used In Alaska Statutes 13.16.350

  • Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
  • Decedent: A deceased person.
  • Dependent: A person dependent for support upon another.
  • Fiduciary: A trustee, executor, or administrator.
  • Intestate: Dying without leaving a will.
  • Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
  • state: means the State of Alaska unless applied to the different parts of the United States and in the latter case it includes the District of Columbia and the territories. See Alaska Statutes 01.10.060
(b) A personal representative may not be surcharged for acts of administration or distribution if the conduct in question was authorized at the time. Subject to other obligations of administration, an informally probated will is authority to administer and distribute the estate according to its terms. An order of appointment of a personal representative, whether issued in informal or formal proceedings, is authority to distribute apparently intestate assets to the heirs of the decedent if, at the time of distribution, the personal representative is not aware of a pending testacy proceeding, a proceeding to vacate an order entered in an earlier testacy proceeding, a formal proceeding questioning the appointment or fitness to continue, or a supervised administration proceeding. Nothing in this section affects the duty of the personal representative to administer and distribute the estate in accordance with the rights of claimants, the surviving spouse, any minor and dependent children and any pretermitted child of the decedent as described elsewhere in Alaska Stat. Chapter 13.06 – Alaska Stat. Chapter 13.36.
(c) Except as to proceedings that do not survive the death of the decedent, a personal representative of a decedent domiciled in this state at death has the same standing to sue and be sued in the courts of this state and the courts of any other jurisdiction as the decedent had immediately before death.
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