Kentucky Life Estate Deed

Kentucky hasn't enacted a statutory transfer-on-death deed for real property, and the 2026 legislative session didn't change that. Senate Bill 34, which would have created a Uniform Real Property Transfer on Death Act, had its last recorded action as a referral to a House committee on March 24, 2026 — meaning it never became law. The current KRS Chapter 381 index still lists traditional life-estate provisions, but no enacted TOD-deed chapter for real property.

In place of a TOD deed, Kentucky families typically work with a traditional life estate: KRS 381.090 addresses an estate for life with a remainder in heirs, and KRS 381.150 covers a conveyance made by a tenant for life. An owner using this structure keeps the right to live in the home for life while passing a remainder interest to someone else now.

A Kentucky elder-law source distinguishes this traditional life estate from the enhanced Lady Bird deed used in some other states — that's a planning description, though, not an official guarantee of Medicaid eligibility or protection from estate recovery. Because Kentucky's recovery definition is expanded (see estate recovery below), a life estate here needs its own transfer and recovery analysis rather than an assumption borrowed from another state's rules.