Kentucky living trusts & estate documents

Living trust law in Kentucky

A revocable living trust holds your home, accounts, and other property during your life, you stay in full control as trustee and can change or revoke it any time, then passes it to your beneficiaries without probate when you're gone. In Kentucky, trusts are governed by the Kentucky Uniform Trust Code, KRS Chapter 386B.

Avoiding probate in Kentucky

Probate in Kentucky is governed by the KRS Chapters 391 to 397 and handled by the District Court. Probate is in the district court of the Commonwealth.

Administration may be dispensed with where the exemption for the surviving spouse or children (the $30,000 exemption created by KRS 391.030), alone or together with preferred claims paid, equals or exceeds the amount of distributable assets (KRS 395.455, as amended by 2026 Ky. Acts ch. 134, effective July 15, 2026). Assets held in a funded living trust pass to your beneficiaries without probate, whatever the size of the estate. Many Kentucky homeowners set one up for that reason.

Estate and inheritance tax in Kentucky

Kentucky has an inheritance tax (Class A close relatives exempt); no separate estate tax. The separate federal estate tax reaches only estates above $15 million per person (2026, adjusted yearly), so most families never owe it.

Protecting a surviving spouse in Kentucky

A surviving spouse in Kentucky who is left out of the will can instead claim the dower or curtesy share under KRS 392.020: in addition to his or her share under KRS 391.010, an estate for his or her life in one-third (1/3) of any real estate of which the other spouse was seized of an estate in fee simple during the coverture but not at the time of death, and an absolute estate in one-half (1/2) of the surplus personalty left by the decedent, where surplus real estate and surplus personalty include all property held by or payable at the decedent's death to a trust over which the decedent held at the time of death a power of revocation, under Ky. Rev. Stat. § 392.020, as amended by 2026 Ky. Acts ch. 134, and § 392.080, a protection the will itself cannot override.

Kentucky also sets aside exempt property or money up to $30,000 for the surviving spouse, or if there is none the surviving children (Ky. Rev. Stat. § 391.030).

Signing your Kentucky documents

1. Sign the living trust. Executed and acknowledged before a notary.
2. Sign the will. Two witnesses; notarized self-proving affidavit included (standalone and pour-over wills).
3. Sign the power of attorney. Sign your Durable Power of Attorney before a Notary Public.
4. Sign the health care documents. Your Advance Health Care Directive ends with the Kentucky Living Will Directive form. On that form, put a check mark and your initials on each line marked INITIAL HERE. Then sign and date the form either in the joint presence of two adult witnesses or before a Notary Public. Kentucky law requires one or the other, not both. Neither a witness nor the notary may be one of the persons listed in the notice printed after the form (for example, a blood relative of yours).
5. Follow your package instructions. Your package includes page-by-page signing instructions written for Kentucky. Follow those as the authoritative guide.

Serving all of Kentucky

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