Kentucky Will Package for Individuals

Who can sign, and how it must be witnessed

Under KRS 394.020, any person eighteen or older and of sound mind may make a will. The execution requirements come from KRS 394.040: the will must be in writing and signed by you, or by someone else in your presence and at your direction. If the will is not entirely in your own handwriting, it must be signed or acknowledged before at least two credible witnesses, and those witnesses must sign in your presence and in the presence of each other. That last requirement catches people out. Many states let witnesses sign separately. Kentucky does not, and a will witnessed in two different rooms can fail.

What the Individual Will Package Includes

Last will and testament

The core document. It directs who receives your probate property, names your executor and any alternate, and can create a trust inside the will for a beneficiary who should not receive money outright, such as a young adult or someone with creditor problems.

Self-proving affidavit

Signed at the same time as the will under KRS 394.225, notarized alongside your witnesses. It lets the will be probated without tracking down the people who watched you sign it.

Guardian nomination for minor children

Under KRS 387.040, a parent may nominate a guardian by will, and may name different people to manage a child inheritance and to raise the child day to day. The court retains discretion, but a considered nomination carries real weight and spares your family a contested hearing.

Durable power of attorney

Your will does nothing while you are alive. A financial power of attorney under KRS Chapter 457 lets someone you choose pay bills, deal with the bank and handle property if you cannot. Read more about powers of attorney and advance directives.

Living will directive and healthcare surrogate

Kentucky advance directives under KRS 311.621 to 311.643 state your wishes about end-of-life treatment and name the person who speaks for you medically. Without them, KRS 311.631 hands the decision down a statutory list of relatives that may not match your family.

Beneficiary and titling review

We review how your accounts and real property are actually titled and who is named on each beneficiary form, because those designations override your will. This step is where most of the real problems surface.

Adults with no children

Without a will, Kentucky sends your estate down a statutory ladder to parents, then siblings, then more distant relatives. If you would rather provide for a partner, a friend, a niece or a charity, only a will accomplishes that. Note that beneficiaries outside your immediate family may owe Kentucky inheritance tax.

Divorced parents

Kentucky law helps here, but only partly. Under KRS 394.092, divorce automatically revokes the provisions of your will that favor your former spouse. It does not touch the beneficiary designation on your life insurance or retirement account. We see ex-spouses inherit six-figure accounts this way, years after the decree.

What Happens If You Die Without a Will in Kentucky

Kentucky rewrote its intestacy law effective July 15, 2026, and the change is significant enough that most of what is currently published online about Kentucky inheritance is out of date. Under the revised KRS 391.010, a surviving spouse now takes the entire intestate estate when there are no descendants, or when every descendant is also a descendant of that spouse. Where the deceased leaves a child who is not the surviving spouse child, the spouse takes one-half.

After the spouse, the estate passes in order to children and their descendants, then parents, then siblings and their descendants, then grandparents, then aunts and uncles, then stepchildren, and finally to the Commonwealth if no one qualifies. Separately, KRS 391.030 sets aside thirty thousand dollars in personal property for a surviving spouse and children, and KRS 392.020 gives a surviving spouse a dower or curtesy interest in addition to the intestate share.

None of this accounts for the family you actually have. It does not recognize an unmarried partner, a stepchild you raised, or the child who moved home to care for you. It cannot disinherit anyone, it cannot create a trust for a beneficiary who should not receive a lump sum, and it has nothing to say about who raises your children.

• You turn eighteen, or a child of yours does
• You marry, divorce, or remarry
• A child or grandchild is born or adopted
• You buy real property, a farm, or an interest in a business
• A named executor, guardian or beneficiary dies or becomes unsuitable
• You move to Kentucky from another state, or own property in more than one state
• You or your spouse receive a diagnosis that could affect capacity later

Common Mistakes We Correct

Signing an online form without Kentucky witnesses

The most frequent defect we see. The document itself may be fine, but it was signed with one witness, or with witnesses who were not together, or with a beneficiary serving as a witness. KRS 394.040 requires two credible witnesses who sign in your presence and in each other presence.

Assuming a will keeps the family out of probate

It does not. If avoiding probate is the goal, the tool is usually a revocable living trust, properly funded. A will only tells the probate court what to do.

Leaving beneficiary designations unchanged after a divorce

KRS 394.092 revokes the gift to a former spouse in your will. It does not reach your 401k, IRA, life insurance or payable-on-death accounts. Those forms have to be changed by hand, and no one else will do it for you.

Believing a deed to two people creates survivorship

Kentucky abolished automatic survivorship. Under KRS 381.120, a deed to two people creates a tenancy in common unless the instrument expressly says otherwise, so the deceased owner half goes through probate. This is one of the most expensive assumptions in Kentucky property law.

Waiting for a transfer-on-death deed that does not exist

Kentucky still has no transfer-on-death deed for real property. A bill passed the Senate in March 2026 and died in House committee, the fourth such attempt since 2018. Do not plan around one.

Naming an executor without checking whether they can serve

Out-of-state executors, executors who have moved, and executors who are themselves elderly all create friction at exactly the wrong moment. We talk through alternates, and whether a bond will be required.