Executor Fee in Alaska: The Personal Representative Sets the Fee First, Subject to Later Court Review

Updated September 4, 2026. Quick answer: Alaska sets no percentage, no schedule, and no statutory factors. Alaska Stat. §§ 13.16.430, 13.16.440 entitle a personal representative to reasonable compensation for services, and the personal representative sets that fee themselves in the first instance, without prior court approval. Any interested person can later petition the court under § 13.16.440 to review the reasonableness of that self-set fee, and a personal representative found to have taken excessive compensation can be ordered to make refunds.

The statute, and what it does not do

Alaska Stat. §§ 13.16.430 and 13.16.440 provide only that a personal representative is entitled to reasonable compensation for services. There is no percentage, no schedule, and no list of factors for a court to weigh, the shortest possible version of a reasonable-compensation standard.

Who actually decides, and only after the fact

In Alaska, the personal representative sets their own compensation in the first instance, with no prior court approval required. A court becomes involved only if an interested person later petitions under § 13.16.440 to review the reasonableness of that self-set fee, or of fees paid to agents or attorneys the personal representative employed; on such a petition, a personal representative found to have taken excessive compensation can be ordered to make refunds. A will provision on compensation can be renounced by the personal representative in favor of the statutory reasonable-compensation standard instead.

What that means in practice

Because there is no court approval step up front, an Alaska personal representative should set and document a defensible fee before anyone asks, since the only real check on the amount is a later petition by an interested person. Keeping records of the time, tasks, and value delivered protects a self-set fee against a later reasonableness challenge, and against a refund order if the fee is found excessive.

What the whole process costs in this state: Alaska probate cost. Every state’s fee model side by side: probate cost by state.

Work out the number: the executor fee calculator. How the standard is applied where no schedule exists: reasonable-compensation states. Whether to take the fee at all: when the executor is also an heir, and how the fee is taxed.

Statutory text read at each state’s own legislature or official code publisher. General information, not legal advice; a court retains the final say on what compensation is allowed.