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Kentucky source record

Every source behind the Kentucky guide

5 primary records, quoted verbatim and checked against 17 named presence or absence conditions that must pass against the live government text. Open the record, read the words the publishing body actually used, and confirm the current rule for yourself.

Last full re-fetch September 15, 2026

What each source establishes

The Kentucky guide rests on the source-backed rules this site can verify for the state: which simplified procedure exists and what it limits, what the court charges, how the person administering the estate may be paid, and the statutory creditor-deadline clocks the official text states.Every published rule below is quoted in the publisher’s own words rather than summarised.

Simplified-procedure rule

KRS 395.455

Kentucky Legislature (Kentucky Revised Statutes) · E f f ec t iv e: J u ly 1 5 , 2 0 2 6 · Verified August 9, 2026

the c o urt may orde r that a dmi n ist ra ti on of the e stat e be disp e nse d with

What this means: Harvested text has per-letter spacing (the aspx renderer inserts spaces between glyphs); quotes are exact substrings including those spaces. Effective July 15, 2026 (Amended 2026 Ky. Acts ch. 134) — current.

What was published from this source

  • KY KRS 395.455

Conditions checked against the live text

Each condition below must be found in the page as the publisher currently serves it. If any one of them stops matching, the build fails and the figure is withheld rather than published from memory.

  • court may dispense with administration
  • exemption cross-reference to KRS 391.030
  • section identity KRS 395.455
  • section identity

Response digest e2e11c26a9d11bea… · HTTP 200

Simplified-procedure rule

KRS 391.030

Kentucky Legislature (Kentucky Revised Statutes) · E f f ec t iv e: J u ly 1 5 , 2 0 2 0 · Verified August 9, 2026

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.

What was published from this source

  • KY KRS 391.030

Conditions checked against the live text

Each condition below must be found in the page as the publisher currently serves it. If any one of them stops matching, the build fails and the figure is withheld rather than published from memory.

  • exemption $30,000 personal property
  • section identity KRS 391.030
  • section identity

Response digest c21cc02ebcd04223… · HTTP 200

Executor compensation rule

KRS 395.150

Kentucky Legislature (Kentucky Revised Statutes) · E f f ec t iv e: Octo b er 1 , 1 9 4 2 · Verified August 9, 2026

sha ll not e x c e e d five pe rc e nt (5% ) of the va lue of the pe rsona l e state of the de c e de nt, plus five pe rc e nt (5% ) of the income c oll e c ted

What this means: 5% ceiling on the value of the personal estate PLUS 5% of income collected — base is personal estate, not real property. Letter-spaced text; quote is an exact substring.

What was published from this source

  • KY KRS 395.150

Conditions checked against the live text

Each condition below must be found in the page as the publisher currently serves it. If any one of them stops matching, the build fails and the figure is withheld rather than published from memory.

  • comp ceiling 5% personal estate + 5% income
  • section identity KRS 395.150
  • section identity

Response digest 79d167bfb9361e8b… · HTTP 200

Court cost rule

KRS 64.012

Kentucky Legislature (Kentucky Revised Statutes) · E f f ec t iv e: J u ly 1 5 , 2 0 2 6 · Verified August 9, 2026

five (5) pa g e s ................................ ................................ ......... $33.00

What this means: This is the county-CLERK RECORDING fee schedule ($33.00 to record a will or other probate document of ≤5 pages), NOT the District Court estate-opening cost. Included to be explicit about what the $33 does and does not represent. Letter-spaced text; quote is an exact substring. Effective July 15, 2026 (current).

What was published from this source

  • KY KRS 64.012

Conditions checked against the live text

Each condition below must be found in the page as the publisher currently serves it. If any one of them stops matching, the build fails and the figure is withheld rather than published from memory.

  • clerk recording fee $33 for will ≤5 pages
  • will/probate document recording item
  • section identity KRS 64.012
  • section identity

Response digest 29e44a9fdc9c9258… · HTTP 200

Creditor deadline rule

KRS 396.011

Kentucky Legislature (Kentucky Revised Statutes) · E f f ec t iv e: J u n e 2 9 , 2 0 2 1 · Verified August 9, 2026

unless pre se nted withi n six (6) mont hs a fte r the a ppoint ment of the pe rsona l re pre se ntative, or whe re no pe rsona l re pre se ntative ha s be e n a ppoint e d, withi n two ( 2) y e a rs a fte r the de c e de nt' s de a th.

What this means: Kentucky's official statute pages render with per-character spacing; the quote and assertions are verbatim substrings of that spacing, and assertion regexes tolerate the whitespace with \s+ between tokens, matching the neighboring KY sources.

What was published from this source

  • KY KRS 396.011

Conditions checked against the live text

Each condition below must be found in the page as the publisher currently serves it. If any one of them stops matching, the build fails and the figure is withheld rather than published from memory.

  • KY 6-month appointment bar and 2-year outer bar
  • KY 396.011 section identity
  • section identity

Response digest c6d0a6d3a0d44277… · HTTP 200

Statutes read in full for Kentucky

These are the Kentucky provisions read end to end on the enacting state’s own site, rather than summarised from a secondary source. The middle column is what reading each one actually established for Kentucky — not a restatement of the topic — and the last column records the date the wording was read, so a later amendment can be spotted by comparing dates.

CitationWhat reading it establishedRead on
KRS 64.012Kentucky prices a will by the page, and exempts it from the surcharge — court and filing cost note2026-09-17
KRS 395.455, 395.470Kentucky has no small-estate dollar ceiling — it dispenses with administration instead — small estate route note2026-09-17
KRS 395.150Kentucky’s 5% rule has stood unamended since 1942, and it taxes income separately — representative pay note2026-09-17

Kentucky source decision map

How the Kentucky records fit together

The source record is most useful when each citation has a job. This map links the Kentucky procedure, cost, compensation, and deadline records to the decision each one can and cannot answer.

QuestionRecorded Kentucky answerCarry 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?$30,000Use 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.

Decision boundary

What the Kentucky source set does not silently decide

The Kentucky records establish the rules listed above, but they do not turn a source citation into advice about title, family priority, tax filing, contested proceedings, or the exact clerk practice in every county. Those questions stay with the official court or a qualified adviser. The useful next step is to match the question to the citation rather than treating the longest quote as the answer to every estate problem.

Arithmetic illustration

See the Kentucky amount screen without mistaking it for a result

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 amountComparison to the Kentucky ceilingWhat it does not decide
$22,500Below $30,000Title, liens, waiting period, appointment, or creditor duties
$37,500Above $30,000Whether another statutory route or court process applies

Next evidence to collect

Open the quoted record for the row you rely on and check the publisher's current text before filing.

  1. Record the date of death, the county, and the exact proceeding or affidavit being considered.
  2. Classify each asset by title, beneficiary, trust, real-property status, and the value basis shown above.
  3. Open the official court material below and keep its form or schedule with the estate record.
  4. Do not distribute property until the route, creditor position, and required approvals are resolved.

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

Records used by this Kentucky map

  • KRS 395.455KRS 395.455 — Transfer of assets without administration; reviewed August 9, 2026
  • KRS 391.030KRS 391.030 — Descent of personal property; exemption; reviewed August 9, 2026
  • KRS 395.150KRS 395.150 — Compensation of representatives; reviewed August 9, 2026
  • KRS 64.012KRS 64.012 — Fees of county clerks; reviewed August 9, 2026
  • KRS 396.011KRS 396.011 — Presentation of claims against estate; time limitations; exceptions; reviewed August 9, 2026

What Kentucky courts publish

The statutes on this page state the rule. These are the documents the court itself publishes. Every link is probed before release, and any link that stops resolving fails the build rather than staying on the page.

No Kentucky court document is linked here. The notes below state why, rather than leaving the absence unexplained.

Limits on court material

  • 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.

Checking these Kentucky records against the publishers

Every citation above links to the body that publishes it, and every quoted sentence is reproduced exactly, so a text search on the publisher’s own page should land on it. Where the publisher’s current wording differs from what is recorded here, the publisher governs and this page is wrong; naming the citation and the language you see maps the difference onto a specific condition rather than a general complaint. The full procedure, including how a source qualifies in the first place and what disqualifies one, is set out once on the methodology page instead of being restated on each of the254 state records.

These records cover the cost and route questions this site answers for Kentucky. They do not cover intestate succession shares, spousal and family allowances, creditor priority, tax filing obligations, real-property transfer mechanics, or contested proceedings. Where an answer would require one of those, the site says so rather than estimating.

Return to the Kentucky estate guide ·All 254 records ·Dataset overview and citation ·How sources are selected