Estate Planning for Blended Families in Kentucky: Protecting Your Spouse and Your Children

The Default Rules Work Against Blended Families

If you're in a second marriage with children from a prior relationship, Kentucky's default inheritance laws almost certainly don't match what you want to happen.

Under Kentucky's intestacy statute (KRS 391.010), if you die without a will, your surviving spouse receives half of your probate estate. The other half is divided equally among your children — including children from prior marriages. That means your current spouse could be forced to share ownership of the family home with your children from a previous relationship, or your children could end up with nothing if all your assets are jointly titled with your new spouse.

Neither outcome is what most blended families intend.

The Spousal Elective Share Limits Your Options

Even with a will, Kentucky law prevents you from completely disinheriting your spouse. Under KRS 392.080, a surviving spouse has six months from the date the will is admitted to probate to renounce it and claim their statutory share instead.

That statutory share under KRS 392.020 includes one-half of the surplus real property owned at death and one-half of the surplus personal property — after debts, funeral costs, and the $30,000 spousal personal property exemption.

Here's the critical trap for blended families: "surplus personalty" includes non-probate assets. A revocable trust over which the decedent held a power of revocation, joint accounts, and accounts with POD/TOD designations can all be reached by a surviving spouse's elective share claim. You can't simply move everything into a trust or beneficiary account and assume your children from a prior marriage are protected.

Planning Strategies That Actually Work

Write a will with intentional provisions for both your spouse and your children. The simplest approach: leave your spouse enough to satisfy or exceed their elective share, and direct the remainder to your children. If your spouse is provided for adequately, they have no incentive to renounce the will and trigger the statutory default.

Use a JTWROS deed for the family home, but designate other assets for your children. If the home should go to your current spouse, titling it as joint tenants with right of survivorship ensures it transfers automatically. Bank accounts, investment accounts, and life insurance can name your children as beneficiaries — keeping those assets outside the probate estate entirely.

Consider a QTIP trust for larger estates. A Qualified Terminable Interest Property trust allows you to provide income to your surviving spouse for their lifetime, with the remaining principal passing to your children after the spouse dies. This ensures your spouse is cared for without giving them the power to redirect assets away from your children.

Name a neutral executor. In blended families, naming either your spouse or your children as executor can create conflicts of interest. A neutral party — a trusted friend, a professional fiduciary, or a bank trust department — can administer the estate without taking sides.

Update beneficiary designations immediately after remarriage. Retirement accounts and life insurance policies don't update themselves. If your ex-spouse is still named as beneficiary on your 401(k), federal ERISA law may require the plan to pay them — regardless of what your will says.

Stepchildren and Inheritance Rights

In Kentucky, stepchildren who have not been legally adopted have no inheritance rights under the intestacy statute. If you want your stepchildren to inherit, you must name them explicitly in your will. Simply treating them as your children during your lifetime creates no legal claim to your estate.

One exception: if you adopted your stepchildren — even informally "in infancy" — Kentucky's Class A inheritance tax exemption includes adopted children and stepchildren, so they inherit tax-free.

The Kentucky Basic Estate Planning Kit includes worksheets for mapping your blended family's asset distribution — so you can test different scenarios and see exactly how Kentucky's default rules would divide your estate versus your actual plan.

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