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Miller Trust Guide
AK · Guide

How to Set Up a Qualifying Income Trust in Alaska: Step by Step

Alaska does not publish a fill-in Qualified Income Trust form. To meet its requirements, an attorney (or, where permitted, you) drafts the trust to satisfy DPA's own published policy, names a trustee, opens a dedicated trust bank account, and funds it with the applicant's income in the same calendar month you want coverage to begin. The trust diverts income above Alaska's $2,982/month long-term-care Medicaid cap (figures effective 2026; trust rules effective July 2007) so the applicant qualifies. For complex estates, consult an Alaska-licensed elder-law attorney. This guide is informational only and is not legal advice — we explain what DPA's policy requires; we do not draft the trust or provide sample trust language.

What usually happens

Alaska doesn't publish a fill-in form, so the trust has to be drafted to DPA's requirements, and an elder-law attorney quotes $1,000–$2,500 to research and draft it. Once it's signed, you take it to the bank, where the branch has never opened one of these and says no.

Meanwhile the month is running out. In Alaska, coverage can't start before the month the trust is funded, so a month that slips is another month of private-pay nursing care at $8,152–$8,517.

This applies when the person who needs care has gross monthly income over Alaska's income cap of $2,982, whether you're their child, their spouse, or a professional helping them.

Free: the questions to ask an Alaska bank before your first visit

7 questions for a five-minute phone call, so you find out whether a branch knows how to open this account before you make the drive. Emailed now, then 4 short follow-ups over the next 10 days — then we stop.

Email only — we never ask for income, age, or family details, and never sell your address.

Alaska does not publish a fill-in Miller Trust form, so the trust is drafted — by an attorney, or by you where permitted — to meet Alaska Department of Health, Division of Public Assistance (DPA) -- determines Medicaid long-term-care financial eligibility, including Qualifying Income Trust review and approval, through DPA's Policy & Program Development Team (hss.dpa.policy@alaska.gov) and DPA regional/program offices.'s own published requirements. Here is the full sequence, with the DPA fact behind each step.

  1. Confirm the applicant's income is over the Alaska cap

    A Qualified Income Trust only helps when monthly countable income exceeds Alaska's long-term-care Medicaid limit — $2,982/month single (figures effective 2026; trust rules effective July 2007). If income is under the cap, a trust usually is not needed.

  2. Get the required-provisions checklist

    Alaska does not publish a fill-in QIT form. DPA's own published policy (7 AAC 100.604 ("Recognized Medicaid trusts") and 7 AAC 100.610 (qualifying-income-trust requirements); DPA's Aged, Disabled and Long Term Care (ADLTC) Eligibility Manual § 526 (Qualifying Income Trusts)) instead lists exactly what a compliant trust must contain — the checklist tells you what to bring to an attorney or verify in a draft.

  3. Have the trust drafted

    No Alaska case, statute, or bar ethics opinion specifically addresses Medicaid-planning kits or trust-drafting kits -- the state's UPL statute (AS 08.08.230, defined by Alaska Bar Rule 63) is broadly worded (it bars, for compensation, "preparing documents for another which affect legal rights or duties") but has no on-point holding in either direction on generic self-help kit publishing. DPA itself directs applicants to "find an attorney knowledgeable about trusts" as step one of its own published process (MED-23), and drafting a Qualifying Income Trust from the requirements below means producing an original legal document from scratch -- a materially different task than filling in an existing state form. For most families, that argues for an attorney: self-drafting carries more risk of missing a required clause -- including Alaska's court-registration and DPA-approval preconditions -- than filling in an existing form would. Budget for an attorney; this guide is what keeps that engagement efficient.

  4. Name a trustee

    Alaska's regulations (7 AAC 100 Article 11, read in full) prohibit the applicant/recipient from being trustee or from having any ability, access, or authority to manage or control the trust account (7 AAC 100.604(b)(5)) -- but do not otherwise specify who may serve, beyond requiring the trust to identify the trustee and a successor-trustee procedure.

  5. Open the dedicated trust bank account

    Open a dedicated bank account titled to the trust once it is signed. Branches commonly hesitate to open this account type, so know what to say before you go.

  6. Fund the trust in the same calendar month

    Deposit enough of the applicant's income into the trust account to bring remaining countable income below $2,982 — in the same calendar month you want coverage to start. DPA does not back-date, so the month you fund is the earliest month eligibility can begin.

  7. Distribute monthly and keep records

    Each month the trustee pays out only the allowed items and keeps records. Staying inside DPA's rules each month is what keeps benefits from being pulled.

The two steps families get stuck on are opening the bank account in Alaska and funding the trust before the calendar month closes — see how long setting up an Alaska Miller Trust takes for the timing rules.

What your Alaska trust must contain

Alaska does not publish a fill-in Qualified Income Trust form. DPA does not publish a fill-in Qualifying Income Trust form -- only informational brochures (MED-21 Trustee Information, MED-22 Special Needs/Pooled Trusts, MED-23 Qualifying Income Trusts) that direct applicants to retain an attorney. Alaska's own regulation, 7 AAC 100.604 and 100.610, instead sets out in unusually specific detail what a compliant trust must contain -- income-only funding, irrevocability, a trustee-and-successor procedure, drafter identification on every page, and a state payback clause -- but attaches no sample or fill-in instrument. The checklist below is drawn directly from that regulation, read in full from the primary source, so you or your attorney can draft -- or verify a draft against -- a trust that actually satisfies what DPA requires.

The step that isn't really paperwork

Opening the bank account is where families actually lose time — most branches have never opened this kind of trust account before. Free one-pager: the questions to ask before you drive to a branch, emailed now. Then 4 more short emails over the next 10 days — then we stop. No ongoing newsletter.

Email only — we never ask for income, age, or family details, and never sell your address.

Common questions

What do you need before you start setting up an Alaska Miller Trust?
Proof of the applicant's gross monthly income (a Social Security award letter, pension statements), and confirmation that income is actually over Alaska's $2,982/month cap — a Miller Trust only matters if both are true. Knowing who will serve as trustee ahead of time also speeds up the rest of the process. States differ on whether the applicant can serve as their own trustee, so check what DPA says before you choose.
Is the Alaska Miller Trust process the same as in other states?
The shape is similar everywhere — get the trust document, name a trustee, open a dedicated bank account, fund it, and submit it to Medicaid — but the specifics underneath vary by state: the exact form or requirements, the income cap, whether an EIN is needed, and the agency's own submission process. This guide covers Alaska's specifics.