Updated September 7, 2026. Quick answer: In Alaska, once the personal representative publishes notice to creditors, a creditor has 4 months to file a claim; and if notice is never published, the absolute deadline is 3 years from the date of death.
What is the creditor-claim deadline in Alaska?
| Once notice to creditors is published | 4 months |
| If notice is never published (absolute deadline) | 3 years from the date of death |
| Creditor personally mailed notice | No separate mailed-notice deadline |
“within four months after the date of the first publication of notice to creditors… within three years after the decedent’s death, if notice to creditors has not been published.”
Source: Alaska Stat. § 13.16.460
What makes Alaska different
Alaska’s outer bar runs a full 3 years from death if notice is never published, a far wider gap from the standard 4-month publication window than most states.
Does this deadline apply the same way if the estate never opens probate?
These deadlines are creatures of the probate process itself; they run once an estate is opened (by publication, mailing, appointment, or the grant of letters, depending on Alaska’s own rule above). A creditor of a decedent whose estate never enters probate at all is not cut off by this particular statute, though the underlying debt’s own ordinary statute of limitations still applies.
Sources
| Statute | Alaska Stat. § 13.16.460 |
| Alaska courts (general reference) | Alaska judicial branch |
| Confidence | High |
Every statute quoted on this page was read directly from the state’s own legislature/code site this session, or, where that site blocked automated access, from a reputable legal-citation mirror quoting the same official text with its official citation (disclosed below). General information, not legal advice; the exact deadline in a given estate can turn on facts (whether a personal representative was appointed, whether notice was ever published or mailed) that only your own probate court file can confirm.