Kentucky Intestate Succession

When a Kentucky resident dies without a will, two statutes decide who inherits. KRS 391.010 governs the real estate, and KRS 391.030 governs the personal property. For deaths on or after July 15, 2026, a 2026 reform gives the surviving spouse the real estate outright, or one-half in a blended family, and dower or curtesy still applies on top of that share.

This guide answers one question: who gets what when there is no will. For how to open the estate and work through the deadlines, read the companion Kentucky probate guide. To see how these rules divide a specific estate, use the Kentucky inheritance calculator and model who inherits what when there is no will. This guide also explains how dower and curtesy add to a surviving spouse's share, a rule that sets Kentucky apart from most states. For the wider picture, start at Kentucky probate help.

What Dying Without a Will Means in Kentucky

Dying without a valid will is called dying intestate. When that happens, no document names the heirs, so Kentucky statute does. The state splits the job by asset type. Real estate descends under KRS 391.010, and surplus personal property is distributed under KRS 391.030 to the same people, in the same proportions, that take the real estate. Every share is measured against what remains after funeral expenses, administration charges, and debts are paid.

Intestacy reaches only probate property, meaning assets that pass through the estate. Property with a named beneficiary, a payable-on-death or transfer-on-death registration, or joint ownership with right of survivorship passes outside the estate and skips these rules. Kentucky does not offer a transfer-on-death deed for real estate, so land passes through the deed record and the estate, not through a beneficiary form. Check the title and the beneficiary designation on each asset before you apply anything below. To see which assets skip probate, read how to avoid probate in Kentucky.

The 2026 Reform Changed the Real Estate Rule

Kentucky rewrote its descent statute in 2026, and the date of death picks which version applies. For deaths on or after July 15, 2026, 2026 Ky. Acts ch. 134 (Senate Bill 50) amended KRS 391.010 to give the surviving spouse a direct, first-priority share of the real estate. Before that date, the real estate passed first to the decedent's children and other kindred, subject to the spouse's dower or curtesy life estate. The two schemes divide an estate differently, so confirm the date of death before you map any shares. The rest of this guide states the current rule under the 2026 amendment.

The Surviving Spouse's Real Estate Share

KRS 391.010(1)(a) sets the spouse's share of the real estate by looking at who the decedent's descendants are:

• the entirety of the real estate when the decedent leaves no descendant
• the entirety when every surviving descendant of the decedent is also a descendant of the surviving spouse
• one-half of the real estate when the decedent leaves one or more descendants who are not descendants of the surviving spouse
• one-half when all of the decedent's descendants are shared with the spouse, but the spouse also has one or more descendants who are not the decedent's

The one-half rule is the blended-family rule. Stepchildren on either side pull the spouse down from the whole estate to a half. When the spouse takes one-half, the decedent's descendants take the other half per stirpes under KRS 391.040. Any interest that does not pass to the spouse moves down the class order in subsections (2) through (6).

(Source: KRS 391.010(1).)

Personal Property and the $30,000 Exempt Allowance

Personal property follows a two-step path. First, KRS 391.030(1)(c) sets apart the first $30,000 of personal property or money as an exempt allowance. The District Court sets it apart to the surviving spouse on application, or to the surviving children when no spouse survives. This allowance comes off the top before the rest is distributed. A surviving spouse may also petition the District Court to withdraw up to $2,500 from the decedent's bank account while the estate is pending.

What remains, called the surplus, passes to the same people and in the same proportions as the real estate under KRS 391.010. Two Kentucky quirks sit inside this statute. An alien may take personal property as a distributee as though he or she were a citizen, and the personal estate of a minor is distributed as if the minor had reached full age. The $30,000 allowance is set apart on top of the spouse's or children's intestate share, so it does not reduce what they take under the class order.

Dower and Curtesy Sit On Top of the Intestate Share

Kentucky is one of the few states that still keeps dower and curtesy. KRS 392.020 gives the surviving spouse an interest that is separate from, and stacked on top of, the KRS 391.010 real-estate share. This is why a generic elective-share description does not fit Kentucky. The state does not use the Uniform Probate Code's percentage-of-the-augmented-estate election. It uses dower and curtesy, and the statute says so: any reference to dower or curtesy in Kentucky law means the interest created by KRS 392.020.

The interest has two parts. On the real-estate side, the survivor takes a life estate in one-third of the real estate the deceased spouse owned in fee during the marriage but had given up before death. Read that carefully. It reaches land the decedent conveyed away while married, not the land still owned at death, because the land owned at death already passes to the spouse under KRS 391.010. On the personal-property side, the survivor takes an absolute estate in one-half of the surplus personalty.

Kentucky then defines surplus personalty broadly. Under KRS 392.020(2) and (5), it folds back in personal property the decedent held at death that passed by beneficiary, transfer-on-death, or payable-on-death designation, property owned jointly with right of survivorship, property in a revocable trust, and property over which the decedent held a general power of appointment. Gratuitous transfers made within two years of death also count, while transfers made more than two years before death do not. The spouse's one-half is then credited with the nonprobate personal property the spouse already received, and a death benefit on the decedent's life insurance is left out of the surplus but credited against the share. Dower and curtesy can reach property that never entered probate. Because the numbers turn on dates, credits, and title, and because these interests overlap with the KRS 391.030 distribution, the exact combined amount is fact-specific. Confirm the combined figure with the District Court or a Kentucky attorney before anyone distributes the estate.

When There Is No Surviving Spouse

Any part of the estate that does not pass to a spouse, or the whole estate when there is no spouse, moves down the classes in KRS 391.010(2) through (6). Each class must be empty before the next one inherits.

1. Children and their descendants. The children take equal shares, and the descendants of a child who died first take that child's share per stirpes (KRS 391.040).
2. Father and mother. With no descendants, the parents take one moiety, meaning one-half, each. If one parent has died, the surviving parent takes the whole estate.
3. Brothers and sisters and their descendants. With no parent surviving, the siblings inherit, and a deceased sibling's descendants step into that sibling's share.
4. Grandparents, then aunts and uncles, then stepchildren. One moiety passes to the paternal and one to the maternal grandparents equally, with the survivor of a side taking that whole moiety. If no grandparent survives, the estate goes to the aunts and uncles and their descendants. If none of them survive, it goes to the stepchildren of the decedent.
5. The Commonwealth of Kentucky. When no one in any of these classes survives, the estate escheats to the state under KRS 391.010(6) and KRS 393.020.

Kentucky is unusual in placing stepchildren in the intestate order at all. In most states a stepchild inherits nothing by intestacy, but here a stepchild takes ahead of the state. Even so, escheat is rare, because the family classes reach a long way out.

Half-Blood Relatives Take Only Half a Share

A half-blood relative shares only one parent with the decedent, such as a half-brother or half-sister. Kentucky treats them differently from whole-blood relatives. Under KRS 391.050, collaterals of the half blood inherit only half as much as those of the whole blood when they take alongside whole-blood or ascending kindred. This sets Kentucky apart from states that give a half-blood heir a full share. Take a decedent with no spouse, no descendants, and no living parents, survived by one whole brother and one half-sister. The whole brother takes two-thirds and the half-sister takes one-third, because her half-blood share is half the size of his.

Kentucky's Ancestral-Property Rule

Kentucky keeps an older source-of-title rule that many states dropped. Under KRS 391.020, when someone dies intestate and without issue while owning real estate that was a gift from a parent, that parent, if still living, inherits the whole of that real estate. The land goes back to the branch it came from. A related rule protects children. When a person under age 18 dies without issue holding title to real estate received by gift, will, or descent from one parent, the whole descends to that parent and that parent's kindred. If you inherited land from a parent, or a young family member did, check this rule before you assume the ordinary class order applies.

Other Rules That Can Change a Share

A handful of statutes add or remove an heir the class order would otherwise reach:

• A child born after the death. A child born to a widow within ten months after the intestate's death inherits as if the child had been living at the death (KRS 391.070).
• A parent who abandoned the child. Under Mandy Jo's Law, a parent who willfully abandoned the care and maintenance of a child takes no intestate share of that child's estate and cannot administer it, unless the parent resumed care at least a year before the death and kept it up, or was deprived of custody by a court and complied with its support orders (KRS 391.033). The forfeited share passes as if the parent had not survived the child.
• Divorce and adultery. An absolute divorce bars each former spouse from the other's estate. A spouse who voluntarily leaves the other and lives in adultery forfeits all interest in the other's property, unless the two later reconcile and live together again (KRS 392.090).
• Lifetime gifts counted against a share. Real or personal property a parent or grandparent gave a descendant during life is charged against that descendant's share in the division, valued as of when it was given. Ordinary support and education, and money given without a plan to settle a portion in life, do not count (KRS 391.140).

A Surviving Spouse Can Renounce a Will Instead

Intestacy governs when there is no will, but a related right matters when there is one. When a Kentucky spouse dies with a will, the survivor may renounce it and take the dower or curtesy share under KRS 392.020 as if no will had been made, under KRS 392.080. One limit applies. On renunciation, the share of the real estate the decedent owned in fee at death is only one-third. The right runs on a clock: the spouse must acknowledge the renunciation and file it with both the court that admitted the will to probate and the county clerk within six months after the will is admitted. A will contest or a court order can extend that window. If a will exists, check the six-month deadline before the window closes. The Kentucky surviving spouse rights guide walks through renunciation, dower, and curtesy in full, and the Kentucky will requirements guide explains what makes a will valid.

Read a Kentucky Intestate Estate in Order

Use this sequence when you map who inherits:

1. Separate probate property from assets that pass by beneficiary designation, right of survivorship, or a trust. Only probate property follows these rules, though dower and curtesy can reach some nonprobate personalty.
2. Confirm the date of death, and use the 2026 KRS 391.010 rule for deaths on or after July 15, 2026.
3. Set apart the $30,000 exempt allowance, then figure what remains after funeral costs, administration, and debts.
4. Apply the spouse's real-estate share under KRS 391.010(1) and the surplus-personalty distribution under KRS 391.030, then add dower or curtesy under KRS 392.020.
5. Send the rest down the class order in KRS 391.010(2) through (6), splitting a deceased heir's branch among that heir's descendants.
6. File through the District Court in the decedent's county, and follow the first steps after a death in Kentucky before anyone distributes property.

Making a valid will replaces these defaults with your own plan, and the Kentucky will requirements guide shows what the state asks for.

When to Bring in a Kentucky Attorney

Some intestate estates are simple to map from the statute. Others need a licensed Kentucky attorney, above all when:

• the estate holds land the decedent gave away during the marriage, so dower or curtesy under KRS 392.020 must be valued
• a blended family puts the one-half real-estate rule in play, and stepchildren on either side change the math
• real estate the decedent received as a gift from a parent raises the ancestral-property rule
• half-blood siblings inherit alongside whole-blood siblings and the shares must be divided
• an heir died before the decedent and their branch raises a question about who steps in
• someone's conduct, such as abandonment, divorce, or adultery, may forfeit a share
• an heir cannot be found, or the family tree is unclear

This guide helps you organize the source-backed shares and the questions to ask. A licensed Kentucky attorney can advise on rights, disputes, and signing decisions for a specific estate. This is general information about Kentucky estates, not advice for your situation.

Sources:

• Title: KRS 391.010, Descent of real estate (amended 2026 Ky. Acts ch. 134, effective July 15, 2026). Publisher: Kentucky Legislative Research Commission. Publication Date: Effective July 15, 2026. URL: https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/law/statutes/statute.aspx?id=57665
• Title: KRS 391.030, Descent of personal property and $30,000 exemption for surviving spouse and children. Publisher: Kentucky Legislative Research Commission. Publication Date: Effective July 15, 2020. URL: https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/law/statutes/statute.aspx?id=49987
• Title: KRS 392.020, Surviving spouse's interest, dower and curtesy, surplus personalty and surplus real estate. Publisher: Kentucky Legislative Research Commission. Publication Date: Effective July 15, 2026. URL: https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/law/statutes/statute.aspx?id=57666
• Title: KRS 391.050, Collaterals of the half blood, inheritance by. Publisher: Kentucky Legislative Research Commission. Publication Date: Effective October 1, 1942. URL: https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/law/statutes/statute.aspx?id=36136
• Title: KRS 391.020, Descent of real estate acquired from parent. Publisher: Kentucky Legislative Research Commission. Publication Date: Not listed. URL: https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/law/statutes/statute.aspx?id=36131
• Title: KRS 392.080, Surviving spouse may renounce will, share, six-month deadline. Publisher: Kentucky Legislative Research Commission. Publication Date: Effective July 15, 2010. URL: https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/law/statutes/statute.aspx?id=36181

It is not legal advice.