Work it out on your own number

Kentucky’s cap has two limbs, and they run on two different things. Here is the schedule and a worked example rather than a single answer.

What each part costs

Every row is one figure, one source, one date. Where Kentucky fixes no price, the row says so instead of guessing.

What can change the bill — allowances, waivers and one-off charges

What changes YOUR number in Kentucky

The house is not in the base

The five percent runs on the personal estate. Real property sits outside it entirely, so an estate whose main asset is a house produces a far smaller representative’s fee than its headline value suggests. This is the most common way a Kentucky estimate comes out too high.

A ceiling the court can go above

Most percentage states set a cap and stop there. Kentucky prints a route past it: on proof that the representative did work that was unusual or extraordinary and not normally part of administering an estate, or work on real estate, or work on estate and inheritance taxes claimed against property that is not part of the estate but is counted in for tax purposes, the court may allow whatever additional compensation is fair and reasonable.

Income counts twice over the life of the estate

The second limb is five percent of income collected during administration — rent, dividends, interest. A long administration collecting income for two years produces a larger ceiling than a short one holding the same assets.

The filing fee is the one figure we will not print

Kentucky is the only state in this database whose court filing fee appears in no statute at all. It is set by rule of the Supreme Court under KRS 24A.170(1) and published in the court system’s own schedule. We show what the statutes show: the ten-dollar county add-on, the twenty-dollar service charge, and the county clerk’s recording bill. For the filing fee itself, ask the clerk of the District Court in the county where the estate will be opened, and expect the county add-on on top.

Coming 1 January 2028

Coming 1 January 2028: once a will is admitted to probate, the court clerk will collect the county clerk’s will-filing fee and the state tax at the same time and pass both on to the county clerk. It is not charged today; we’ll add the figure when the state publishes it. Nothing about the amounts changes on that date — what changes is who collects them and when.

Three tools, in the order most people need them

Kentucky probate cost questions

How much does an executor get paid in Kentucky?

No more than five percent of the value of the personal estate, plus no more than five percent of the income the estate collects during administration. It is a ceiling, so the court can allow less. Real property is not in the base. On proof of unusual or extraordinary services, or of work on real estate or on death taxes claimed against property outside the estate, the court may allow more than the cap.

Does Kentucky set probate attorney fees by statute?

No. The only section in the probate chapter that mentions the attorney simply lets the personal representative name one at the time of appointment, so the court copies that attorney on notices. It fixes no rate and no cap. The five percent is the representative’s, not the lawyer’s.

What does it cost to file for probate in Kentucky?

The statutes do not say. Kentucky hands District Court filing fees to the Supreme Court to set by rule, so the figure lives in the court system’s schedule rather than in the code, and no Kentucky total can be stated from the statutes. What the statutes do print: your county may add ten dollars to a probate filing by ordinance, service of process is twenty dollars per service paid to the sheriff, and the county clerk charges thirty-three dollars to record the will plus ten dollars for records storage and a four dollar state tax.

Does an executor need a bond in Kentucky?

Not by default, since 15 July 2026. The starting point is now that no bond is required. The court orders one for a public administrator or a curator, or where it decides a bond is needed to protect the estate. It looks at what the will says and at how experienced the representative is, but the statute says plainly that the court is not bound by what the will says, in either direction. Where a bonding company is used, the premium comes out of the estate.

Does Kentucky have a small estate affidavit?

Not in the usual sense, and the thirty thousand dollar figure people quote is an exemption rather than a limit. Kentucky sets aside thirty thousand dollars of personal property or money for the surviving spouse, or the children if there is no spouse, and where that exemption plus any preferred claims already paid equals or exceeds what is distributable, the District Court can dispense with administration entirely. That works in both testate and intestate estates, and since 15 July 2026 the spouse does not have to renounce the will. A second route with no figure at all exists where the estate owes nothing and every beneficiary agrees in writing.

Sources & verification

Every figure on this page was checked against the official source on the date shown. Kentucky’s statutes are published by the Legislative Research Commission with a stable address for each section; those per-section links download a PDF rather than opening a web page.