What Are the Burial and Cremation Laws in Alaska?

Alaska imposes no statutory minimum waiting periodAS 13.75.070Verified Sep 10, 2026View source before cremation. The person with disposition authority under AS 13.75.020 must authorize the cremation. If the decedent left a disposition document stating they did not wish to be cremated, no person may authorize cremation (AS 13.75.070). A burial-transit permit from the local registrar is required before cremation, and is issued once the death certificate has been filed (AS 18.50.250; 7 AAC 05.460).

Alaska sets a statutory order for who controls the disposition of remains: the individual who was the spouse of the decedent at the time of the decedent's death, then the sole surviving competent adult child, or a majority of the surviving competent adult children, then the surviving competent parents of the decedentAS 13.75.020Verified Sep 10, 2026View source. The state allows you to name your own agent in a signed, written documentAS 13.75.010; AS 13.75.030Verified Sep 10, 2026View source, and that designation takes priority over the default order. Those wishes can be recorded alongside the rest of an estate plan when you create a revocable living trust.

Embalming is not required by lawAS 18.50.230Verified Sep 10, 2026View source in Alaska. No Alaska statute requires embalming. The commissioner of health may adopt regulations on the transportation of dead bodies "except that the commissioner may not require that a dead body be embalmed unless the body is known to carry a communicable disease or embalmment is otherwise required for the protection of the public health or for compliance with federal law" (AS 18.05.040(a)(4)).

In Alaska, a licensed funeral director is not required — a family may legally direct the disposition itselfAS 08.42.020Verified Sep 10, 2026View source. Alaska does not require a licensed funeral director for disposition that does not involve embalming. AS 08.42.020(a) bars an unlicensed person from engaging in the "practice of mortuary science," but AS 08.42.200(3) defines that practice narrowly as embalming, taking charge of remains dead of a communicable disease, preparing bodies for shipment, or directing or supervising funerals.