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KENTUCKY LEGAL INFORMATION
Last Will and Testament Statutes
Link to the Kentucky Statutes online which contain the portion of the Probate Code dealing with last wills.
American Bar Association Guide to Wills and Estates
American Bar Association, Estate Planning
Selected Kentucky Statutes
- Persons competent to make -- What may be disposed of. Any person of sound mind and eighteen (18) years of age or over may by will dispose of any estate, right, or interest in real or personal estate that he may be entitled to at his death, which would otherwise descend to his heirs or pass to his personal representatives, even though he becomes so entitled after the execution of his will.
Kentucky Code 394.020.
- Minor can make will, when. No person under eighteen (18) years of age can make any will, except in pursuance of a power specially given to that effect, and except also, that a parent, though under eighteen (18) years of age, may by will appoint a guardian for his child.
Kentucky Code 394.030.
- Requisites of a valid will. No will is valid unless it is in writing with the name of the testator subscribed thereto by himself, or by some other person in his presence and by his direction. If the will is not wholly written by the testator, the subscription shall be made or the will acknowledged by him in the presence of at least two (2) credible witnesses, who shall subscribe the will with their names in the presence of the testator, and in the presence of each other.
Kentucky Code 394.040.
- Uniform testamentary additions to trust act.
(1) A will may validly transfer property to the trustee of a trust:
- Established during the testator's lifetime by the testator, by the testator and one (1) or more other persons, or by one (1) or more other persons, including a funded or unfunded life insurance trust, although one (1) or more persons other than the trustee have reserved any or all rights of ownership of the insurance contracts; or
- Established at the testator's death by the testator's transfer to the trustee, if the trust is identified in the testator's will and its terms are set forth in a written instrument, other than a will, executed before, concurrently with, or after the execution of the testator's will or in another individual's will if that other individual has predeceased the testator, regardless of the existence, size, or character of the corpus of the trust.
(2) A transfer referred to in subsection (1) of this section shall not be invalid because the trust is amendable or revocable, or because the trust was amended after the execution of the will or the testator's death.
(3) Unless the testator's will provides otherwise, property transferred to a trust in accordance with subsection (1) of this section shall not be held under a testamentary trust of the testator but shall become a part of the trust to which it is transferred. The property shall be administered and disposed of in accordance with the provisions of the governing instrument setting forth the terms of the trust, including any amendments to it made before or after the testator's death.
(4) Unless the testator's will provides otherwise, a revocation or termination of the trust before the testator's death shall cause the devise or bequest to lapse.
(5) This section shall be effective for any devise or bequest made by wills of decedents dying on or after July 15, 1998.
(6) This section shall be construed to effectuate its general purpose to make uniform the law of those states that enact it.
(7) This section may be cited as the Uniform Testamentary Additions to Trusts Act.
Kentucky Code 394.076.
- Revocation of will -- How effected. No will or codicil, or any part thereof, shall be revoked, except: (1) By subsequent will or codicil; (2) By some writing declaring an intention to revoke the will or codicil, and executed in the manner in which a will is required to be executed; or (3) By the person who made the will, or some person in his presence and by his direction, cutting, tearing, burning, obliterating, canceling, or destroying the will or codicil, or the signature thereto, with the intent to revoke.
Kentucky Code 394.080.
- Nonrevocation of will by marriage of testator. A will shall not be revoked by the marriage of the person who made the will.
Kentucky Code 394.090.
- Effect of divorce or annulment of marriage of testator. If after executing a will the testator is divorced or his marriage annulled, the divorce or annulment revokes any disposition or appointment of property made by the will to the former spouse, any provision conferring a general or special power of appointment on the former spouse, and any nomination of the former spouse as executor, trustee, conservator or guardian, unless the will expressly provides otherwise. Property prevented from passing to a former spouse because of revocation by divorce or annulment passes as if the former spouse failed to survive the decedent, and other provisions conferring some power or office on the former spouse are interpreted as if the spouse failed to survive the decedent. If provisions are revoked solely by this section, they are revived by the testator's remarriage to the former spouse.
Kentucky Code 394.092.
- Attesting witness -- Effect of subsequent incompetency of or devise to.
(1) If any person who attests the execution of a will shall, after its execution, become incompetent to be admitted as a witness to prove its execution, the will shall not, on that account, be invalid.
(2) If a will is attested by a person to whom, or to whose wife or husband, any beneficial interest in the estate is devised or bequeathed, and the will cannot otherwise be proved, such person shall be deemed a competent witness; but such devise or bequest shall be void, unless such witness would be entitled to a share of the estate of the testator if the will were not established, in which case he shall receive so much of his share as does not exceed the value of that devised or bequeathed.
(3) A will may be proved by the testimony of one (1) of the subscribing witnesses without regard to the availability or competency of the other witnesses, provided said will was acknowledged or subscribed by the testator in the presence of two (2) witnesses at the same time.
Kentucky Code 394.210.
- Self-proved will. (1) Any will may be simultaneously executed, attested, and made self-proved, by acknowledgment thereof by the testator and affidavits of the witnesses, each made before an officer authorized to administer oaths under the laws of this state and evidenced by the officer's certificate, in substantially the following form:
I, ...................................., the testator, sign my name to this instrument this ....... day of ..............., 19....., and being first duly sworn, do hereby declare to the undersigned authority that I sign and execute this instrument as my last will and that I sign it willingly (or willingly direct another to sign for me), that I execute it as my free and voluntary act for the purposes therein expressed, and that I am eighteen (18) years of age or older, of sound mind, and under no constraint or undue influence.
________________________________
(Testator)
We, ............................., ..................................., the witnesses, sign our names to this instrument, being first duly sworn, and do hereby declare to the undersigned authority that the testator signs and executes this instrument as his last will and that he signs it willingly (or willingly directs another to sign for him), and that each of us, in the presence and hearing of the testator and in the presence of the other subscribing witness, hereby signs this will as witness to the testator's signing, and that to the best of our knowledge the testator is eighteen (18) years of age or older, of sound mind, and under no constraint or undue influence.
________________________________
(Witness)
________________________________
(Witness)
THE STATE OF ...............................
COUNTY OF ...................................
Subscribed, sworn to and acknowledged before me by ....................., the testator and subscribed and sworn to before me by ..............................., and ........................, witnesses, this ......... day of ....................... .
(Signed).................................................................................
(OFFICIAL CAPACITY OF OFFICER)
Kentucky Code 394.225.
Library of Informational Legal Articles
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