Make your own Kentucky will.
Yours in about 20 minutes. Legally valid in Kentucky. Free to create, or add secure online document storage with the $29/year subscription.
Is a self-written will legal in Kentucky?
Yes. Kentucky recognizes wills you write yourself, as long as they meet the state's signing requirements. The governing statute is Ky. Rev. Stat. §394.020 et seq.
Your will needs to be in writing, signed by you, and witnessed by 2 adults who are present at the same time. You don't need a notary for the will itself to be valid, but adding a notarized "self-proving" affidavit makes the probate process faster later (this tool generates that for you automatically). Kentucky also recognizes handwritten ("holographic") wills, written entirely in your own handwriting and signed.
You must be at least 18 years old and of sound mind. Choose witnesses who don't inherit under your will: some states void or reduce a gift to a witness, and the exact Kentucky rule is covered below. This tool walks you through the rules so you don't trip over them.
A will you write yourself has the same legal force as one drafted by an attorney, provided you follow the signing rules. Courts admit self-written wills to probate every day. An attorney's value is in advising on complex estates, not in drafting the document itself.
What it costs to make a will in Kentucky
A Kentucky estate-planning attorney typically charges $300 to $600 for a simple will, and $1,000 to $1,500 for a will-plus-revocable-trust package. Rates run higher in dense metros and lower in rural areas. Most attorneys bill at $250 to $400 per hour and need one or two meetings to draft a basic will.
You can also write a will entirely from scratch with a sheet of paper and a pen, with no software at all. Kentucky requires the same 2-witness signing process regardless of who drafts the document. The risk with a from-scratch will is technical: a missing self-proving affidavit, a witness who's also a beneficiary, or wording that creates ambiguity for the probate court. That's what this tool prevents.
Will.com is free at the document level. The $29/year subscription adds cloud-stored, zero-knowledge-encrypted access so you can edit and update your plan as life changes.
Kentucky will requirements at a glance
How it works
- 1
Answer a few questions
About you, your family, and what you own.
- 2
Download your will
A complete, personalized document, formatted for Kentucky courts.
- 3
Sign with witnesses
Print and sign in front of 2 adult witnesses. Keep the signed copy somewhere safe.
When you might want an attorney instead
An online will works for most people. It's the right tool when your situation is straightforward: you want to leave your assets to family or friends, you don't have complex tax issues, and you're not anticipating a fight over your estate.
Consider hiring an attorney if any of these apply:
- Your estate is large enough to trigger federal estate tax (over $15 million in 2026) or Kentucky estate or inheritance tax.
- You own a business, complex investments, or assets in multiple states or countries.
- You're in a blended family, especially if you want to leave assets to a current spouse while protecting children from a prior relationship.
- You have a child or beneficiary with special needs and want a supplemental-needs trust that won't disqualify them from public benefits.
- You expect someone to contest the will, or you're disinheriting a close family member.
- You have substantial retirement accounts and want sophisticated beneficiary planning.
If none of these apply, an online will is genuinely fine. The legal validity of your will doesn't depend on who drafted it, only on whether Kentucky's signing rules were followed.
Self-proving affidavit in Kentucky
Kentucky recognizes self-proving affidavits. Will.com attaches one to your will: a short statement your witnesses sign in front of a notary, swearing to what they saw when you signed. See KRS 394.225.
A self-proven will skips the requirement to track down witnesses years later for the probate court. It's optional, but adding the affidavit at signing time saves your executor work. Will.com generates the affidavit alongside the will.
Who can witness your will in Kentucky
KRS §394.210(2): a devise or bequest to an attesting witness, or to the witness's husband or wife, is void only if the will cannot otherwise be proved; even then the witness is deemed competent and may prove the will, and a witness who would have inherited had there been no will keeps that intestate share up to the value of the voided gift. The voiding is conditional, applying only when the interested witness's testimony is needed to establish the will. Under KRS §394.210(3), a will that the testator acknowledged or subscribed in the presence of two witnesses at the same time may be proved by one subscribing witness alone, so a disinterested co-witness can often establish the will and leave the gift intact. Using witnesses who take nothing under the will is still the safer practice.
Family changes after you sign
A child born or adopted after the will. A child who arrives after you sign, and who isn't named or accounted for in the will, is covered by Kentucky law rather than by your wishes. The safest practice is to update your will when your family changes.
Ky. Rev. Stat. §394.382 (Share of pretermitted child): a child born or adopted after execution of the will and not provided for in it receives a share equal in value to what the child would have received had the testator died intestate, unless the will shows the omission was intentional; or the testator had one or more children when the will was executed and devised substantially all the estate to the other parent of the omitted child; or the testator provided for the child by transfers outside the will and the intent that those transfers be in lieu of a testamentary provision is shown by statements of the testator, by the amount of the transfers, or by other evidence. A first-time parent whose will predates the child does not fall within the second exception, because at execution there were no children. Note: §394.380 was repealed in 1972; the current cite is §394.382.
A spouse you married after signing. Updating the will after marriage avoids relying on whatever Kentucky law provides by default.
Kentucky has no pretermitted-spouse rule. Ky. Rev. Stat. §394.090 provides that marriage after will execution does NOT revoke the will, so a surviving spouse omitted from a premarital will must rely on the elective share / dower regime at §§392.020 and 392.080 rather than an omitted-spouse intestate share.
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