Kentucky route screening
Kentucky does not use a single dollar-capped small-estate affidavit; two distinct mechanisms interact. (1) Surviving spouse/children exemption (KRS 391.030): personal property or money on hand or in a bank or other depository up to thirty thousand dollars ($30,000) is exempt and passes to the surviving spouse, or if none to the surviving children — a set-aside, not a whole-estate procedure. (2) Dispensing with administration (KRS 395.455): a SEPARATE court order. Where the exemption for the surviving spouse or children under KRS 391.030, alone or together with preferred claims, equals or exceeds the amount of distributable assets, the court may order that administration of the estate be dispensed with and the assets transferred to the surviving spouse or children (or to a preferred creditor who paid preferred claims). The $30,000 figure is the KRS 391.030 exemption that drives the § 395.455 arithmetic; it is not itself a filing threshold. The relevant base is personal property/money on hand or in a bank.
Sources reviewed August 9, 2026. Latest primary-source re-fetch September 15, 2026.
Threshold evidence and currency
Currency: No later session-law supersession is recorded in the reviewed source set for this threshold. The edition/currentness label below is the basis for the published figure.
Controlling citation: KRS 391.030 — E f f ec t iv e: J u ly 1 5 , 2 0 2 0.
Verbatim threshold text from that source:
P e rsona l prope rty or money on ha nd or in a ba nk or other de posi tory to t he a mount of thi rty thous a nd doll a rs ($30, 000) sha ll be e x e mpt
The headline limit is not a count of everything the person owned. It is a test of the property and deductions named by this procedure. Classify title and beneficiary status first; property that transfers by a valid survivorship right, beneficiary designation, or funded trust follows its own transfer path.
This reviewed route is limited to personal probate property. A house or other real property is not transferred through this screen, even when the personal-property total is below $30,000. Open the deed and the receiving court’s real-property instructions before assuming the simplified procedure resolves the whole estate.
The reviewed value basis is gross for this route. The tool does not subtract a mortgage or other lien from the amount test unless the cited rule says to do so.
No waiting-period number is published because it has not been verified to the same primary-source standard as the threshold.
Assemble the death date, will status, asset titles, beneficiary confirmations, values, enforceable liens, family facts, and any prior court filing before signing anything. Then use the court publisher’s current artifact for the selected route.
Probate in Kentucky is heard in the District Court. The Kentucky Court of Justice self-help/forms site (kycourts.gov) could NOT be pinned under the HTTP-200 rule: automated requests are intercepted by a WAF that returns 403 (no browser headers) or a 302 challenge/404 (with browser headers), never a clean 200. A human must add the kycourts.gov Legal Forms / self-help links. The only stably-reachable official Kentucky resource verified at HTTP 200 is the Legislature’s statute portal (apps.legislature.ky.gov/law/statutes/), which is the primary-law source rather than a court forms hub.
If the state publishes no statewide form, that is a finding—not a missing link. Contact the District Court or clerk in the proper county for its packet and current filing instructions rather than borrowing an unofficial form from another county.
This is general information, not legal, tax, or financial advice, and it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Probate law varies by state and county and changes over time. Verify the current rule with the court or a licensed attorney in the relevant state.
Most states answer “when can we skip probate?” with a number. Kentucky answers it with a comparison. Under KRS 395.455, where the exemption for the surviving spouse or children, alone or together with preferred claims paid by the spouse or children, equals or exceeds the amount of distributable assets, the court may order that administration be dispensed with and the assets transferred to the surviving spouse, or if there is none, to the surviving children or a person the spouse designates.
The test is therefore relative, not absolute: a larger estate with larger preferred claims can qualify where a smaller one with none does not. The court may make the order in both testate and intestate estates without requiring renunciation of a will, and under subsection (2), where it is satisfied that no distributable estate will pass through a personal representative’s hands, it may order that no letters of administration issue and that a will be probated only. Subsection (3) extends the same relief in favour of a preferred creditor or other person where the spouse or children have waived the exemption in favour of someone who paid preferred claims.
A second, wholly separate route runs through KRS 395.470, which dispenses with administration by written agreement. It requires that there be no debts owing by the estate; that all beneficiaries entitled to the personal estate agree in writing, under penalty of perjury, that there be no further administration, designating a trustee with power to collect claims and demands where applicable; that advertisement has occurred as required by subsection (7), evidenced by an acknowledgment under penalty of perjury; that provision has been made for the state inheritance tax and the federal estate tax if any; and that there are no claims or demands due the estate where no trustee has been designated.
The agreements of all beneficiaries are filed in the District Court together with the motion. An agreement is effective if executed by a person who had authority to contract on behalf of a beneficiary when signed — a point that matters where a beneficiary acts through an attorney-in-fact.
Source: KRS 395.455, 395.470, read from the enacting state’s own published code on 2026-09-17. Quoted wording is the statute’s; the surrounding explanation is this site’s reading of it and is not legal advice.
Kentucky eligibility map
The Kentucky threshold is one screen, not a complete legal conclusion. This map pairs the recorded ceiling with the property scope, deductions, date, and court artifact that have to be checked before relying on a likely-qualifies result.
| Question | Recorded Kentucky answer | Carry into the case |
|---|---|---|
| What route is being screened? | Surviving-spouse/children $30,000 exemption (KRS 391.030); dispensing with administration when exemption plus preferred claims cover the estate (KRS 395.455) | Confirm that the will, prior appointment, family facts, and asset titles fit this route. |
| What property and basis count? | personal probate property only; gross value for this route. | Keep real property, liens, beneficiary transfers, and survivorship transfers classified separately. |
| What is the amount screen? | $30,000 | Use the counted property, not a bank-balance shortcut. |
| What is the time or deadline record? | No waiting-period number verified; KRS 396.011 sets Kentucky's non-claim bar as one clock keyed to appointment: all pre-death claims are barred against the estate, the personal representative, and the heirs and devisees unless presented within six (6) months after the appointment of the personal representative, or where no personal representative has been appointed, within two (2) years after the decedent's death. Both periods are stated in months/years, so they are carried as descriptions rather than fixed day counts; the six-month period runs from appointment, and the two-year period is the outer bar when no representative is ever appointed. | Keep the event that starts each clock with the date; do not combine separate periods into one number. |
| What does the cost record establish? | No single statewide amount is published here; confirm the receiving court's current schedule. | Ask the District Court about local surcharges, copies, publication, bond, and later filings. |
| What does compensation use? | KRS 395.150 caps the personal representative’s compensation at five percent (5%) of the value of the personal estate of the decedent, PLUS five percent (5%) of the income collected. The base is the personal estate (plus income collected), not real property. The relevant base is gross probate property. | Keep the will, task log, receipts, and accounting base together; extraordinary work is separate. |
Eligibility inputs
A threshold is useful only when the amount is measured the way the source describes. Keep this table with the asset worksheet so an empty or misclassified field cannot look like a confirmed qualification.
| Input | Registry record |
|---|---|
| Threshold | $30,000 |
| Property scope | personal probate property only |
| Value basis | gross value for this route |
| Waiting period | No waiting-period number verified |
| Required extra facts | None listed in the registry |
Case-file context
A route answer is easier to use when the facts that can change it stay in the same record. These are the reviewed Kentucky descriptions adjacent to this page\'s main question; they are not a substitute for the source quotations or the receiving court\'s instructions.
KRS 64.012 is a statewide statutory schedule of county-clerk fees; recording a will or other probate document of five pages or fewer is $33.00. This is a recording fee, not the District Court opening cost, so the court filing fee proper is published as UNKNOWN.
No single statewide amount is published here; confirm the receiving court's current schedule.
KRS 395.150 caps the personal representative’s compensation at five percent (5%) of the value of the personal estate of the decedent, PLUS five percent (5%) of the income collected. The base is the personal estate (plus income collected), not real property.
KRS 395.150 caps the personal representative’s compensation at five percent (5%) of the value of the personal estate of the decedent, PLUS five percent (5%) of the income collected. The base is the personal estate (plus income collected), not real property. The relevant base is gross probate property.
KRS 396.011 sets Kentucky's non-claim bar as one clock keyed to appointment: all pre-death claims are barred against the estate, the personal representative, and the heirs and devisees unless presented within six (6) months after the appointment of the personal representative, or where no personal representative has been appointed, within two (2) years after the decedent's death. Both periods are stated in months/years, so they are carried as descriptions rather than fixed day counts; the six-month period runs from appointment, and the two-year period is the outer bar when no representative is ever appointed.
Court-material note: Probate in Kentucky is heard in the District Court. The Kentucky Court of Justice self-help/forms site (kycourts.gov) could NOT be pinned under the HTTP-200 rule: automated requests are intercepted by a WAF that returns 403 (no browser headers) or a 302 challenge/404 (with browser headers), never a clean 200. A human must add the kycourts.gov Legal Forms / self-help links. The only stably-reachable official Kentucky resource verified at HTTP 200 is the Legislature’s statute portal (apps.legislature.ky.gov/law/statutes/), which is the primary-law source rather than a court forms hub.
Arithmetic illustration
The recorded Kentucky ceiling is $30,000, and it is tested against personal probate property only, on a basis this site records as gross value for this route. Counted that way, $22,500 sits below the Kentucky figure and $37,500 sits above it. Both are comparisons to a published number rather than legal outcomes: two estates holding the same total can land on opposite sides of this line, because what Kentucky counts and how it values it are decided before the comparison is made.
| Illustrative counted amount | Comparison to the Kentucky ceiling | What it does not decide |
|---|---|---|
| $22,500 | Below $30,000 | Title, liens, waiting period, appointment, or creditor duties |
| $37,500 | Above $30,000 | Whether another statutory route or court process applies |
Next evidence to collect
Official material
Kentucky publishes no court artifact in this registry. Probate in Kentucky is heard in the District Court. The Kentucky Court of Justice self-help/forms site (kycourts.gov) could NOT be pinned under the HTTP-200 rule: automated requests are intercepted by a WAF that returns 403 (no browser headers) or a 302 challenge/404 (with browser headers), never a clean 200. A human must add the kycourts.gov Legal Forms / self-help links. The only stably-reachable official Kentucky resource verified at HTTP 200 is the Legislature’s statute portal (apps.legislature.ky.gov/law/statutes/), which is the primary-law source rather than a court forms hub.
Probate in Kentucky is heard in the District Court. The Kentucky Court of Justice self-help/forms site (kycourts.gov) could NOT be pinned under the HTTP-200 rule: automated requests are intercepted by a WAF that returns 403 (no browser headers) or a 302 challenge/404 (with browser headers), never a clean 200. A human must add the kycourts.gov Legal Forms / self-help links. The only stably-reachable official Kentucky resource verified at HTTP 200 is the Legislature’s statute portal (apps.legislature.ky.gov/law/statutes/), which is the primary-law source rather than a court forms hub.
Source trail
Each legal input links to the government source reviewed for this page. Source text can change; confirm the current rule before acting.
Reviewed source note: P e rsona l prope rty or money on ha nd or in a ba nk or other de posi tory to t he a mount of thi rty thous a nd doll a rs ($30, 000) sha ll be e x e mpt
What this means: Sets the surviving-spouse/children personal-property exemption at thirty thousand dollars ($30,000) — the figure KRS 395.455 uses to decide whether administration can be dispensed with. Letter-spaced text; quote is an exact substring. Effective July 15, 2020.