What to Do When Someone Dies in Matanuska-Susitna Borough, Alaska

Palmer firm on Denali Street, minutes from the Mat-Su Borough courthouse where Valley probates are filed. Handles wills and probate alongside business, real estate, and general civil work for Palmer and Wasilla families. Organized in 2011 by attorney DanaLyn Dalrymple.

Wasilla firm on North Main Street serving Mat-Su Valley and Anchorage families through the Palmer and Anchorage courts since 2007. Sells estate planning in three fixed tiers — a will-based Family Plan, a revocable-trust Trust Plan, and a comprehensive Wealth Plan — so the cost is known before the work starts.

Wasilla practice serving Mat-Su Valley families through the Palmer courthouse, with a second Anchorage office. Handles estate planning and probate alongside divorce, family law, personal injury, and landlord/tenant matters. Jennifer Messick has practiced in Alaska since 2005.

Palmer firm on Denali Street, steps from the Mat-Su Borough Courthouse where Valley estates are filed. Handles wills and estate planning alongside personal injury, business law, real estate, landlord/tenant, and family matters. The walk-to-court location is a practical advantage for a personal representative making repeated filings.

Wasilla firm serving the Mat-Su Valley through the Palmer courthouse, formerly the Law Office of Nicole Daussin. Guides families through probate after a death and drafts wills, trusts, pour-over wills, and powers of attorney. Opens probate matters with a free 30-minute consultation.

Downtown Anchorage firm on West 6th Avenue working probate and estate administration through the Third Judicial District court, alongside civil litigation, family law, and appeals. Also drafts wills and estate plans. Handles matters in Spanish, Arabic, and German as well as English, which is rare among Alaska estate practices.

Anchorage appointment-only firm working through the Third Judicial District probate court. Represents personal representatives in testate and intestate estate proceedings and trustees during trust administration, alongside flat-rate estate planning. The initial conference is free, and matters can be opened by phone.

Downtown Anchorage firm on L Street working estates through the Third Judicial District court. Handles probate and estate administration, guardianship and conservatorship, and trust administration alongside wills, trusts, and elder-law planning. Consultations are free, and the firm quotes a four- to six-week turnaround on a completed estate plan.

Anchorage firm (BF Quackenbush Law) practicing in Alaska's Third Judicial District, with offices also in Washington, Oregon, and Texas. Its estate-planning department handles probate and estate administration, trust disputes and will contests, fiduciary-duty litigation, and guardianship and conservatorship matters.

One of Alaska's largest firms (founded 1971), with Anchorage and Washington, D.C. offices and a practice before the Third Judicial District courts. After the February 2025 addition of the Durrell Law Group team, shareholder Ann Bruner handles wills, trusts, estate and trust administration, asset protection, and family-business succession.

Anchorage estate planning firm led by Blyss Cruz, serving the Third Judicial District. Handles wills, trusts, and estate planning for families, with weekend and after-hours appointments available beyond standard weekday hours. Opens with a free 15-minute consult.

Anchorage solo practice on Denali Street serving Southcentral Alaska. Handles everything from simple wills to living trusts and trust administration. Kenneth Kirk has been an Alaska attorney since 1987 and works estate planning as his sole focus rather than one practice area among many.

Downtown Anchorage firm on West Eighth Avenue, established 1976, working through the Third Judicial District court. Handles probate administration and trust work alongside wills, trusts, tax planning, and business succession. Estate practice led by Karl Kaufman, a past president of the Anchorage Estate Planning Council.

Anchorage tax-and-estate boutique handling matters before the Third Judicial District courts. Works estate planning alongside probate and estate and trust administration, and represents clients through estate-tax preparation and estate-related tax disputes. Originated as a tax practice (founded 2009), so its estate work is anchored in tax planning rather than document drafting alone.

Downtown Anchorage firm working the settlement side of estate matters: probate and trust administration, non-probate asset transfers, ancillary probate, and fiduciary-duty matters for executors and trustees. Also drafts irrevocable, community-property, and gun trusts. Founder Robert Manley is a Fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel.

Downtown Anchorage firm on N Street that reaches clients in remote regions of the state through video consultations. Guides named executors and administrators through probate and represents parties in contested estate matters, alongside estate and trust planning. Video intake matters here: an executor in a village off the road system can open a probate without flying to Anchorage.

Anchorage practice with a tax-driven approach to estates and trusts, led by Steven O'Hara. Prepares federal estate, gift, and generation-skipping transfer tax returns, structures trusts, and handles probate. A fit for estates large enough that federal transfer-tax filing is in play.

Anchorage office of a Pacific Northwest regional firm, on L Street. Its Tax & Estate Planning group covers trusts and estate planning, probate and trust administration, and business succession. A fit for an estate that spans Alaska and the Lower 48, since the firm has offices in Washington and Oregon that can handle ancillary property.

Anchorage firm handling formal and informal probate in Alaska's Third Judicial District, plus guardianship and conservatorship proceedings. Sets up revocable living, irrevocable, and special-needs trusts as well as wills, powers of attorney, and advance healthcare directives. Lead attorney Caitlin Shortell is a 2023-2025 Super Lawyer.

Multi-state firm (Louisiana, Washington, Alaska) with an Anchorage office serving probate matters in Alaska's Third Judicial District courts. Handles probate and estate administration, asset protection, and trust establishment, including transferring property to heirs and managing creditor claims against the estate. Offers a free 15-minute consultation.

Anchorage solo practice led by Deborah Randall, a member of the Alaska Bar's Estate Planning and Probate Section, serving estates through the Third Judicial District court. Handles probate and estate administration, estate and gift tax returns, guardianships and conservatorships, and special needs trusts. Randall has practiced law since 1987.

Anchorage estate firm of three-plus decades, guiding personal representatives through probate before the Third Judicial District court. Handles probate and trust administration and litigation, guardianship and conservatorship proceedings, and estate planning with wills and revocable living trusts. Attorney Tonja Woelber has chaired the Alaska Bar's Estate Planning and Probate Section.

Juneau firm serving Southeast Alaska since 1977, handling matters before the First Judicial District courts, with a second office on the Kenai Peninsula. Prepares wills and trusts and assists families with probate and estate administration. Current leadership includes managing partner Gabriel E. Sassoon and partner Rachel K. Berngartt.

Juneau estate planning firm serving clients statewide through Alaska's First Judicial District and remotely across the state. Handles trust administration, probate, and estate administration after a death, including fiduciary guidance, asset collection and valuation, beneficiary notification, and distribution. Works on a flat-fee structure agreed before engagement.

Downtown Anchorage firm representing personal representatives and heirs through contested and uncontested probate in the Third Judicial District court, taking matters from anywhere in the state — Mat-Su Valley to Juneau to Utqiagvik. Also handles small-estate affidavits of collection, ancillary probate for out-of-state decedents, trust administration, and contested guardianships.

Anchorage firm led by Constance A. Aschenbrenner, serving the Third Judicial District and clients statewide. Focuses on wills, living trusts, powers of attorney, guardianship, special-needs trusts, and Medicaid and elder-law planning. Runs recurring estate-planning workshops both in person and online.

Juneau firm serving Alaskans statewide from Southeast Alaska's First Judicial District, sharing an office and phone line with Barnum Law Firm. Delivers flat-fee will and trust packages, each including a telephonic consultation with a staff attorney. Works largely by phone and video so rural and remote clients never travel.

Anchorage general practice on G Street reaching clients across Alaska, from Wasilla and the Kenai Peninsula to Nome, Bethel, and Utqiagvik, with a second office in Dallas. Estate work covers wills, durable powers of attorney for finances, health care directives, transfer-on-death deeds, and funeral pre-planning. Runs matters remotely, which suits families in communities with no resident attorney.

Fairbanks general-practice firm operating in interior Alaska's Fourth Judicial District, founded in 1957. Estate practice covers wills, trusts, and probate alongside its tax and real-estate work. One of the largest and longest-established firms in interior Alaska.

Statewide Alaska estate planning and probate services. Handles living trusts, wills, probate, powers of attorney, advance health care directives, and Alaska community property agreements/trusts. Founded 1987.

Handles estate planning and probate from its Fairbanks office, serving the Interior and reaching into the Mat-Su Valley. Drafts wills, revocable and asset-protection trusts, health care directives, and financial powers of attorney, and guides personal representatives through informal probate after a death.

Anchorage solo practice serving clients across Alaska on revocable trusts, wills, and Alaska domestic asset-protection trusts. Structures plans in defined phases — an hourly initial meeting, then flat-fee drafting once an approach is chosen — and handles the tax questions that come with larger or business-holding estates. Stephen Greer helped draft much of Alaska's modern trust legislation.

Midtown Anchorage office serving clients statewide — Fairbanks, Juneau, Wasilla, and Palmer — by phone. Handles full probate and trust administration for executors and trustees, plus contested matters through probate and trust litigation. Wills, trusts, and powers of attorney round out the estate-planning side.

Anchorage trusts-and-estates boutique on West 3rd Avenue serving clients statewide through the Third Judicial District court. Handles estate and trust administration alongside perpetual Alaska trusts, revocable trusts, and special-needs trusts. Also takes non-residents who want a trust sited in Alaska, so the practice runs deeper on trust mechanics than a general firm.

Mid-size Anchorage firm on L Street serving clients statewide through the Third Judicial District court. Names estate planning among its core practices alongside business and corporate, labor and employment, education, health care, and real estate work. A fit for an estate that carries a business interest or an employment dispute into probate.