---
title: "Kentucky Life Estate Deed | Funding LTC Marketplace"
url: https://fundingltcmarketplace.com/states/kentucky/life-estate-deed/
description: "Kentucky uses traditional life estates rather than a statutory TOD or enhanced Lady Bird deed, with transfer and recovery consequences to review."
last_updated: 2026-10-20
author: George A. Mellendorf, CLTC, LTCP (Central States Insurance Services, Inc.)
publisher: Funding LTC Marketplace
note: Educational content; not legal, tax or financial advice. Markdown copy of the HTML page at the URL above.
---
Kentucky · Asset Protection Tool

# Kentucky Life Estate Deed

Last updated 2026-10-20

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.

## Sources and official resources

- [Kentucky Medicaid: Nursing Facility Services](https://www.chfs.ky.gov/agencies/dms/provider/Pages/nursingfacilities.aspx)
- [U.S. Code: 42 U.S.C. § 1396p (liens, estate recovery, transfers of assets, Partnership disregard)](https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/42/1396p)
- [CMS: 2026 SSI and Spousal Impoverishment Standards](https://www.medicaid.gov/federal-policy-guidance/downloads/cib04272026.pdf)

Rules and figures change. Confirm current details with the agency before you act.

[← Back to the full Kentucky guide](https://fundingltcmarketplace.com/states/kentucky/)