Alaska Broker Law

What the Alaska portion actually is

The Alaska broker examination is delivered by Pearson VUE. This section is read out of candidate handbook #092200 — the July 2026 edition, PDF created 29 June 2026 — and out of the Alaska Real Estate Law Content Outline, effective 14 September 2023, printed on page 22.

The handbook's sentence: "The state law portion of the Alaska examination consists of forty (40) scored items for the salesperson examination, and sixty (60) scored items for the broker examination. Both examinations also contain 5-10 pretest items."

Three facts about the sitting:

• It is one session, not two. Alaska gives the national and state portions no separate clocks. "Candidates will be given four (4) hours to complete the examination; extra time will not be permitted."
• The pass mark is a scaled 75, not a percentage of items. Raw scores are converted "into scaled scores that can range from 0 to 100"; the scaled score "is neither the number of questions you answered correctly nor the percentage of questions you answered correctly"; and "With a passing score of 75, any score below 75 indicates how close the candidate came to passing." Do not compute a target as "45 of 60." Compute nothing. Answer everything.
• Pretest items are not marked. Five to ten of your state items do not count and you cannot tell which — a reason to pace evenly rather than agonize over one strange item.

There is one Alaska outline, and you read the second column

Handbook #092200 contains two national/general outlines, salesperson (pp. 14–17) and broker (pp. 18–21). It contains only one Alaska outline, headed "Alaska Real Estate Law Content Outline — For Salesperson and Broker Exams," and that single outline prints two counts in every heading, as "SALES n / BROKER n." You read the BROKER figure every time. A salesperson-oriented cram sheet built from the same page quotes a different number on four of the seven areas, and nothing at all on one.

Two areas are published as ranges. We are not going to hide that.

The outline prints no fixed count for Area III or Area V. Its exact headings are "III. LICENSEE DUTIES AND DISCLOSURES TO THE PUBLIC (SALES 10-12 ITEMS / BROKER 9-11 ITEMS)" and "V. PERSONAL SERVICES AGREEMENTS (SALES 4-6 ITEMS / BROKER 4-6 ITEMS)."

The five fixed areas add to 6 + 6 + 9 + 9 + 15 = 45. Adding the two ranges gives a state portion of 58 to 62 items, and only the midpoints, 10 and 5, reconcile to the sixty the handbook states in prose.

So wherever this book says "10 items" for Area III or "5 items" for Area V, those are OUR midpoints. Pearson VUE prints 9–11 and 4–6. No guide, this one included, can tell you which figure inside those ranges your form will use. What the ranges do tell you is where the variance sits: Area III can be worth two more items than Area V's entire allocation, and Area V can be worth as little as four. Study Area III accordingly. Every other count on the page is fixed and can be relied on as printed.

Area VII is a quarter of the exam and does not exist for salespersons

"VII. BROKER ONLY (BROKER 15 ITEMS)" is the only heading on the page with no salesperson column. Fifteen of sixty is 25 percent of the Alaska portion: trust accounts, supervision, place of business, recordkeeping. A candidate revising from a salesperson book has not skimmed this material — that candidate has never encountered it, because it was never on that examination. This chapter gives Area VII its full quarter and sizes every other section to its published share.

What the handbook does not publish: any Alaska statute

Handbook #092200 publishes no Alaska statute or regulation reference list. Its resources box on page 21 is headed "General/National Resources," names nine commercial textbooks from Dearborn, Performance Programs and OnCourse Learning, and states that "Pearson VUE does not endorse any particular pre-licensing provider or study materials." That box is national and general on its face. Across all twenty-three pages, the only Alaska legal citation of any kind is one incidental mention of "the license law (AS 08.88)" on page 4.

We record that absence rather than manufacture a vendor list. Every AS and AAC citation in this chapter is ours — read out of the Alaska Real Estate Commission's compilation "Statutes and Regulations — Real Estate Commission," Rev. 09/20/2024, the Alaska Court System's reproduction of the Landlord and Tenant Act, and the Commission's adopted form 08-4229 (Rev. 05/2024). None may be attributed to Pearson VUE.

The regulator. AS 08.88.011 creates the Alaska Real Estate Commission. Under AS 08.88.041(a), five members must be licensed brokers or associate brokers who have held an Alaska license for at least three years before appointment, and two must be public members. Subsection (b) distributes the five by geography — one each from the First, Second, Third and Fourth Judicial Districts and one at large.

Area I — Powers of the Alaska Real Estate Commission (6 items, 10.0%)

Four subtopics: investigations, hearings and appeals; the recovery fund; sanctions (disciplinary actions and penalties); examination of records.

A. Investigations, hearings and appeals

AS 08.88.037(a) lets the commission ask the department to investigate. Subsection (b) opens with a gate candidates skip: the department shall notify all commission members of the proposed order and may act only "if a majority of the members of the commission approve." It may then order a stop to the practice, sue for an injunction, examine the books and records of a person whose business requires licensure, and issue subpoenas.

The temporary order and its three clocks, in one continuous sentence: a temporary order "becomes final if the person to whom the notice is addressed does not request a hearing within 15 days after receiving the notice; if a hearing is requested, a hearing shall be conducted by a hearing officer within 30 days; the commission shall issue a final order within 10 days after the hearing."

The trap. All three numbers sit in the same subsection and each answers a different question. Fifteen days is the window to demand a hearing, thirty is the deadline to hold it, ten is the deadline to decide. Supplying the right number for the wrong stage is the usual way to lose this item. AS 08.88.131 applies the Administrative Procedure Act (AS 44.62); AS 08.88.167(e) sends an appeal from a civil penalty to the superior court under AS 44.62.560.

B. The real estate recovery fund

Note the name. AS 08.88.450(a) establishes "the real estate recovery fund ... in the general fund." It is not a surety fund and not a bond — though AS 08.88.455(a) requires the licensee's fee "in lieu of obtaining a corporate surety bond." Alaska replaced the bond with a pooled fund.

AS 08.88.460(a) is a three-step gate. A final judgment, arbitration award or settlement agreement involving fraud, an intentional tort, deceit, or the conversion of trust funds or community association accounts; an affidavit of due diligence that the amount is uncollectable; and a claim filed "within two years after the date a judgment, arbitration award, or settlement agreement ... is no longer subject to appeal," with a $250 fee refunded on an award or withdrawal.

AS 08.88.465(a): "Not more than $15,000 may be paid for each transaction, regardless of the number of persons injured or the number of parcels of real estate involved." Adding claimants does not raise the ceiling. Where claims exceed the licensee cap, AS 08.88.475(b) prorates: the $50,000 "shall be distributed among the claimants in the ratio that their individual claims bear to the aggregate of valid claims," expressly "without regard to the order in which their claims were filed."

The trap. First-come-first-served is an Alaska rule — at AS 08.88.480, governing the different case where the fund itself is temporarily short of money, which pays in filing order "plus accumulated interest at the rate of eight percent a year." Both rules are real; they attach to different facts. AS 08.88.490 subrogates the commission to the claimant's rights, and AS 08.88.495 provides that full repayment "does not nullify or modify the effect of disciplinary proceedings."

C. Sanctions: disciplinary actions and penalties

AS 08.88.071(a)(3) lets the commission, after hearing, suspend, revoke or impose other sanctions under AS 08.01.075 for substantial misrepresentation, conduct that is fraudulent or dishonest, violating AS 08.88.391, procuring a license by deceit, a broker who employs an unlicensed person, an employed licensee who fails immediately to turn money over, and failing to carry errors and omissions insurance. Subsection (c) is narrower than candidates expect: an employee's conduct is attributed to the broker only where the broker "has actual knowledge" and "agrees to the conduct, either actively or by remaining silent, or ratifies the conduct after it is engaged in."

Subsection (b) is the recovery-fund consequence: on an award the commission may suspend, and the suspension "shall be lifted if the licensee reaches an agreement with the commission on terms and conditions for the repayment" and satisfies AS 08.88.095 education. A conditional suspension with a route back, not permanent revocation. AS 08.88.167 is the separate civil penalty for unlicensed practice: "In addition to penalties prescribed by any other provision of law," it "may not exceed $5,000, or the amount of gain realized plus $5,000, whichever is greater, for each offense," after notice granting a 30-day window to request a hearing on the record.

D. Examination of records

Routine inspection, 12 AAC 64.135(a): it "must be conducted between 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday, unless otherwise agreed, and the broker must be given at least 72 hours' advance notice."

Complete audit, 12 AAC 64.135(b): the commission "may direct that the audit be held with or without prior notice." Where a non-noticed audit is a grave hardship, the broker may request a 24-hour delay, during which "the records must be sealed or secured by and at the direction of the auditor" and "the seals must be broken only by the auditor."

The trap. The 72-hour entitlement is real, and real only for the routine inspection. A broker who meets the auditor by demanding three days' notice has confused the two paragraphs. No subpoena is a precondition to either: AS 08.88.351(a)(5) already requires records to be made available on request.

Area II — Licensing (6 items, 10.0%)

Four subtopics: activities requiring a license; change in license status; licensed and unlicensed assistants; errors and omissions insurance.

A. Activities requiring a license, and the exceptions

AS 08.88.161 requires a license to sell, lease, auction or buy real estate; to list it; to collect rent or property management fees; to practice or negotiate to practice property management or community association management; to deal in options; to procure buyers and sellers; and to hold out as doing any of it. Alaska issues no separate property management license — which is why Area VI is a real estate law area.

AS 08.88.900(a) carves out the exceptions, and 12 AAC 64.905 supplies the reading rule: they "are limited to the roles or activities specified." An exception is permission to do one thing, not a status. The ones to know: a person dealing with real estate the person owns or is seeking to own; an attorney in fact under a power of attorney for a specific transaction, who "may not act as such under this paragraph for more than two transactions in a calendar year"; lawyers, public officials, receivers, trustees, executors and guardians; and, at paragraph (16), "the management of a total of four or fewer residential units by a natural person for other persons."

Where the four-unit exception bites. It counts units in total, not per owner, and turns on neither the owners' residence nor the frequency of the fee. Because of 12 AAC 64.905, that same person may not list one of those houses for sale — a different specified activity.

Broker eligibility, AS 08.88.171(a): passing the brokers examination, applying within six months of passing, the AS 08.88.091 education, and "at least 36 months of active and continuous experience as a real estate licensee within the 60 months immediately preceding application," plus owning a real estate business or being employed as a broker by an entity. Subsection (b) gives the associate broker the same examination and the same 36-in-60 experience, differing only in that the associate broker is employed by a licensed broker.

The trap. Thirty-six months is not "three years of licensure." It is active and continuous experience, and two rules break the chain: 12 AAC 64.080(c) treats any lapse, suspension, revocation or inactivation connected with a violation as "an interruption in the licensee's active and continuous experience," and 12 AAC 64.075(e) does the same where the licensee fails to notify the commission of a transfer or status change within 15 days. A paperwork slip in year two can cost a broker application in year four.

B. Change in license status

12 AAC 64.071(a): all licenses lapse January 31 of every even-numbered year unless renewed, with a reminder at least 60 days ahead. Subsection (g) adds the new-licensee trap: an initially issued license lapses 395 days after issuance unless the post-license education in 12 AAC 64.064 is completed. A first license has its own clock, unrelated to the biennium.

The 24-month line, twice. AS 08.88.241 allows reinstatement of a license lapsed less than 24 months; beyond that the person "is eligible for the license only by meeting the qualifications applicable to initial licensure." AS 08.88.251(c) applies the identical line to an inactive license — reactivation only "if the person has been in inactive status for less than 24 months." An inactive licensee may still receive commissions earned while active but "may not attempt or offer to do any of the activities listed in AS 08.88.161."

Transfers, 12 AAC 64.075. The terminating broker submits the licensee-termination form "not later than five days from the date of the licensee's request for a license transfer," and subsection (c) lets the licensee work in the new office not more than 30 days awaiting the amended certificate. Three numbers, three actors: five days on the old broker, thirty days of grace for the licensee, fifteen days to notify or lose continuity of experience.

C. Licensed and unlicensed assistants

AS 08.88.398 permits a licensed salesperson or associate broker to act as a licensed assistant to another licensee only if both are employed by the same broker; the assistant does licensed work for no more than one broker; the arrangement is in writing; it is "approved in writing by the broker"; the employing licensee pays the wages and taxes; and the broker accepts liability for the assistant's acts. Note who does what: the employing licensee pays, the broker approves and carries the liability. AS 08.88.401(b)(2) carves those wages out of the rule that a licensee may be paid only by the employing broker.

12 AAC 64.095(a) forbids employing an unlicensed person to host an open house, kiosk or home show booth, to show a property, or to explain or interpret a purchase and sale contract, listing contract, management contract "or any other form of service agreement." Subsection (b) permits twenty-one tasks, including placing signs, inputting MLS data as approved by the licensee, filling in forms "with business and factual information as directed by the licensee," recording and depositing trust funds, and computing commission checks.

The shape is the point. Unlicensed staff may handle the money and the paper; they may not handle the consumer. Scheduling appointments is allowed; telephone solicitation expressly is not.

D. Errors and omissions insurance

AS 08.88.172(a) makes coverage a condition of licensing. 12 AAC 02.510(a) sets the floor: "not less than $100,000 limit of liability for each licensee per covered wrongful act or per covered claim," with claims expenses payable in addition to the limit; "an annual aggregate limit of liability of not less than $300,000 per licensee"; and a deductible of not more than $5,000 for every $300,000 of aggregate. 12 AAC 02.550 caps the annual master-policy premium at $2,500.

The trap. $300,000 / $1,000,000 is a real Alaska pairing belonging to 12 AAC 02.530(2), under which a broker employing other licensees may satisfy the standards with one policy at those limits covering everyone associated with the broker. The individual floor is $100,000 / $300,000.