What Senate Bill 50 Means for Heirs Property in Kentucky

A LiKEN Partner Blog

Disclaimer: This is an informative article based on the author’s interpretation of legislation, it is not legal advice and should not be considered as such.

Heirs' property is one of the most persistent drivers of land loss and poverty in Central Appalachia. When land passes down without a will, it splinters into fractional interests among descendants. This results in a clouded title which blocks access to loans and government programs, leaving families vulnerable to dispossession. It's why the Appalachian Heirs' Property Center exists.

This year, the legal landscape around wills and trusts has shifted. Kentucky's Senate Bill 50- the most significant overhaul of the state's trusts and estates laws in decades- took effect July 15, 2026, and changed who inherits property when there's no will, what a surviving spouse can claim, and what tools families have to keep land together.

Here are some of the most important aspects of Senate Bill 50 to be aware of:

Changes to Intestate Succession- Who Inherits Now?

When a person passes away without a will, otherwise known as dying intestate, the distribution of its estate is governed by statute. This method of distribution, known as intestate succession, was significantly changed with the passage of SB50 this past legislative session.

Under the old law, if you died without a will and had both a spouse and children, your spouse got half of your estate and your children split the other half. If you had no spouse and no children, then the state looked for beneficiaries further out in your family tree. It would look to your closest relatives- your parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, and cousins- but if it found none, then it kept searching further, through more distant ancestors before your property would ever be taken possession of (also known as escheat to) the state.

Under the new law:

• If you and your spouse share all the same children (in other words, there are no stepchildren or kids from a prior relationship in the picture), your surviving spouse inherits 100% of your estate. Your children inherit nothing at that point. They would only stand to inherit later, when your spouse themselves passes away. And only if your spouse still hasn't made a will by then, or their will leaves it to them.

• If you have children who are not also your spouse's children (say, kids from a previous marriage) then the old 50/50 split still applies: your spouse gets half, and those children split the other half.

• The same 50/50 split also applies if it's flipped around: your children are shared with your spouse, but your spouse has other children (from a prior relationship) who aren't yours.

• If you have no living spouse and no living children at the time of your death, the statute still looks for beneficiaries further out in your bloodline in this order: (1) your parents; (2) your siblings and their descendants; (3) your grandparents; (4) your aunts, uncles, and their descendants (cousins and beyond); and finally your stepchildren from any marriage. If none of those people can be found, your estate goes to the state.

Why this matters for heirs' property:

There's a genuine upside here. When property passes to one person instead of being split among several right away, it's less likely to become heirs' property at that first death. The land stays under one clear owner instead of immediately becoming jointly held by a spouse and multiple children.

But there's a real tradeoff too. This new rule means that children are no longer automatically taken care of. The decedent, if they wish their children to one day inherit, and the children are trusting that the surviving spouse will eventually pass the land down the way the family intends, whether through their own will, or simply by not remarrying or changing their plans. If that surviving spouse never gets around to writing a will of their own or if their circumstances change (remarriage, a new blended family, outside influence), the original family's wishes for that land aren't guaranteed to be honored down the road.

The clearer stopping point on intestate succession cuts a similar two ways. As explained above, the search for an heir now ends sooner than it used to instead of continuing out through great-grandparents and more distant relatives without a defined end point. That's good news for predictability: families and courts get a faster, clearer answer about where land ends up. But it also means more estates could realistically end up escheating to the state than under the old law. For anyone without close family, writing a will is now even more important, since fewer distant relatives stand between an unclaimed estate and the state taking it over.

With that said, the discussion above is focused mainly on those who own their property shares outright. But what about those who already have heirs property? That is, what about someone whose ownership in property is already fractured because it came to them via the old rules? How does SB50 impact that property interest going forward?

SB 50's changes to intestate succession don't just apply to people who own a piece of land outright. The statute applies whenever a person "having right or title to any real estate or inheritance dies intestate as to such estate.” This language is broad enough to include someone who owns only a fractional, undivided interest in property. That means the new rules reach directly into land that is already heirs' property today. If a person who currently owns, say, a one-eighth undivided share of family land dies without a will, that share will be distributed according to whichever intestacy rules are in effect on the date of that person's death- the old rules if they died before July 15, 2026, the new SB 50 rules if they died after. One piece of land can end up with different shares governed by different versions of the law, depending on exactly when each co-owner in the ownership chain passed away. This is a tangle that families, title researchers, and attorneys working to clear title on land that's already fractionated will need to be aware of and account for going forward.

Changes to Dower: What a Surviving Spouse is Still Guaranteed

Kentucky is one of the few states that still has something called dower- a rule that guarantees a surviving spouse a minimum share of a deceased spouse's property, even if that spouse's will tries to leave them less (or nothing at all). If a will shortchanges a surviving spouse, that spouse can reject the will and take their dower share instead.

Traditionally, dower has two parts: a right to use one-third of the deceased spouse's real estate for the rest of their life, and outright ownership of one-half of the deceased's remaining personal property. Personal property consists of things like bank accounts and investments, left over after debts are paid. That second category has a specific legal name: "surplus personalty."

SB 50 doesn't get rid of dower and it doesn't change that basic one-third/one-half structure. What it does is spell out, in much more detail than before, exactly what counts as surplus personalty. And one of those new details matters a lot for anyone using a trust to try to keep land in the family:

Under the new law, property held in a revocable trust (a trust the person who created it can still change or cancel during their lifetime) counts as surplus personalty. That means it's part of what a surviving spouse can claim their one-half share of, regardless of how long the trust has been set up or funded.

Why This Matters for Heirs' Property

Trusts are one of the tools we recommend and help families set up, specifically because they can keep property out of probate and help avoid the kind of fractional ownership that creates heirs' property. That's still true and trusts remain a valuable tool.

But this update is an important reality check: a simple revocable trust does not automatically shield land from a surviving spouse's dower claim. If a family sets up a trust intending for land to pass only to certain children, or to stay within one branch of the family, a surviving spouse (especially in a second marriage or blended family) may still be legally entitled to claim a share of it.

This doesn't mean trusts aren't worth using. It means families need to go in with clear eyes about what a trust can and can't protect against, especially in blended families where dower rights can create real tension with a family's plan for who gets the land. To give you a general sense of the landscape (not advice for your specific situation):

• Spouses can agree in advance to give up dower rights to specific property, through a signed, legally recognized release. This is sometimes discussed as part of prenuptial or postnuptial planning, and it requires both spouses to agree.

• Different types of trusts carry different protections and tradeoffs. The revocable trust issue described above doesn't affect every kind of trust the same way. However, it must be noted that each structure comes with its own costs, complexity, and loss of flexibility that may or may not make sense for your family.

• Timing and the nature of a transfer matter. Kentucky law treats certain gifts and transfers differently depending on when they happened and whether the giver kept any control over them.

None of these is a one-size-fits-all fix, and some come with real downsides depending on your goals. What matters is that options exist and that a conversation with an attorney, even a short one at one of our clinics, can help you understand which of them (if any) fit your family's situation.

Adoption and Inheritance: Who Legally Counts as Your Child?

SB 50 also changes who counts as your child for inheritance purposes when adoption is involved. Previously, an adoption, even one finalized well into adulthood, could make someone a legal heir for inheritance purposes, the same as a biological child. Under the new law, that's no longer automatic. For inheritance and succession purposes specifically, a child is only treated as the legal child of the adopting parent if the adoption happened, and the child lived in that household, before the child turned eighteen.

In other words: adult adoption still exists, and it still creates a legal parent-child relationship in most respects but it no longer, by itself, makes that person an heir under intestate succession the way it used to.

Why This Matters for Heirs' Property

Under the old law, an adult adoption could make someone a legal heir under intestate succession, the same as a biological child- regardless of when the adoption happened or whether the person was ever raised in that household. SB 50 changes that: now, adoption only carries automatic inheritance rights if it happened, and the child lived in that home, before turning eighteen.

For families thinking about who should inherit land, this makes having an actual will or trust more important, not less. If there's a specific person you want to leave land to- whether or not they're a blood relative, and even if you've helped raise them or consider them family in every way that matters- adoption later in life is no longer a reliable way to make that happen automatically. A will lets you name that person directly, on your own terms, rather than relying on a legal status that may not carry the inheritance rights it once did.

Changes in Confidentiality: Your Assets Are Private Even in Death Now

When someone passes away and their estate goes through probate, certain records have traditionally been open to the public — including a detailed list of everything the person owned. SB 50 changes that.

Under the new law, two key documents are now confidential and filed under seal:

• The financial disclosure statement, which lists the deceased person's property (including real estate not jointly owned with a right of survivorship), and

• The estate inventory, a more detailed accounting of the estate's assets.

Instead of being available to anyone who asks, these records are now only accessible to the personal representative handling the estate, their attorney, the heirs and beneficiaries themselves, or someone who gets a court order by showing good cause, which can include a creditor with a legitimate claim against the estate.

Why This Matters for Heirs' Property

Heirs' property is especially vulnerable to outside speculators and developers who look for land with clouded, fractured titles. Public probate records showing exactly what a family owns are one way that vulnerable property has been identified in the past. Keeping that information sealed by default gives families a real layer of privacy protection they didn't have before, at exactly the moment when an estate's ownership can be most uncertain and most exposed.

This doesn't fix heirs' property or title-clearing challenges on its own. But less public exposure of a family's assets during probate is a meaningful, practical protection, particularly for families who are already navigating a complicated or slow-moving estate.

Stepping into the Modern Age: The Adoption of the Uniform Electronic Wills Act and The Uniform Electronic Estate Planning Documents Act

SB 50 gives Kentuckians a new option for creating a will and other estate planning documents: signing them electronically. Previously, Kentucky law required a will to be a physical, paper document, signed in ink, with witnesses present in the same room. Under the new Uniform Electronic Wills Act, an electronic will can now be just as legally valid.

To be valid, an electronic will has to meet several requirements:

• It must be readable as text at the time it's signed (a video or audio recording of someone stating their wishes does not count as a will).

• It must be signed by the person making the will or by someone else, in that person's physical presence and at their direction.

• It must be signed by two witnesses within a reasonable time of watching the person sign, or watching them acknowledge the will. Those witnesses can be physically present in the room, or "electronically present" (meaning present through live video rather than in person but either way, they must be Kentucky residents who are physically located in Kentucky at the time of signing.

• Signatures from both the person making the will and the witnesses must be handwritten or an image of a handwritten signature. A typed name does not count as a valid signature.

A will can also be made "self-proved," meaning it can be accepted by the court without needing the witnesses to testify later, if it's signed in front of a Kentucky notary who is authorized to perform electronic or remote notarizations.

SB 50 pairs this with a related law, the Uniform Electronic Estate Planning Documents Act, which extends that same electronic-signing flexibility to a much longer list of other important documents, including:

• Trust documents

• Powers of attorney

• Advance healthcare directives and medical orders

• Guardianship nominations (for yourself, or for a minor or disabled child)

• Disclaimers (a legal way of formally refusing an inheritance)

• Documents directing what happens to your body after death

In practice, this means the same flexibility that applies to wills — signing without everyone needing to be in the same physical room — can apply to a trust document, a power of attorney, or a healthcare directive too.

Why This Matters for Heirs' Property

The single biggest cause of heirs' property is simple: no will. And one of the biggest reasons people don't have a will isn't that they don't want one, it's that getting one done can be genuinely hard to access, especially for families dealing with distance, transportation, work schedules, or health.

This matters even more in a region that has seen younger generations move away from home for work, school, or opportunity. A young adult who grew up on family land in Eastern Kentucky but now lives and works in Lexington or Louisville doesn't have to make a special trip back home just to sign a will in the same room as their witnesses. As long as everyone involved is still a Kentucky resident physically located in the state at the time of signing, the process can now happen electronically. That's a real, practical difference for families whose members are spread out across the state, even if they haven't left it.

It's worth being clear about the limits, too: this doesn't extend to people who've left Kentucky altogether, since witnesses still have to be Kentucky residents physically present in the state when a document is signed. But for the many Appalachian families with members now living elsewhere in Kentucky, it removes a real, practical barrier and lowers the distance between "I know I need a will" and "I actually have one," which remains the single most effective thing anyone can do to keep their land from becoming heirs' property in the first place.

Updating Trusts Over Time: Changes in Decanting

Trusts aren't static documents. A family's circumstances can change in ways the original trustor never anticipated. One important update in SB 50 is a new set of rules for how an existing trust can be modified to keep up with those changes.That process is called decanting. Decanting is, essentially, pouring the assets of one trust into a new trust with updated terms, without having to unwind the original trust entirely or go through court to change it. Kentucky already allowed some decanting before SB 50 but the new law replaces the old, brief statute with a much more detailed one, adopted from a uniform act used in many other states.

One update stands out for families using trusts to keep land together: a trustee can now decant an existing trust into a special needs trust for a beneficiary, even if the trustee didn't otherwise have the discretion to do so. This is a new exception under the law. Previously, that kind of flexibility depended on the trustee already having broader discretion over how the trust's assets could be distributed.

This matters because of a problem a lot of families run into without realizing it: many government benefits that people with disabilities depend on (including Medicaid and Supplemental Security Income (SSI)) are needs-based, meaning eligibility can be lost if a person suddenly has assets or an inheritance in their own name. A properly structured special needs trust allows someone to remain a beneficiary of family property without jeopardizing the benefits they rely on. SB 50's decanting update gives families and trustees a more direct path to set that structure up, even for a trust that's already in place, if a beneficiary's circumstances change after the fact.

It's also worth noting that Kentucky's new decanting law applies to trusts already in existence- not just new ones going forward- unless the trust document specifically says otherwise.

Why This Matters for Heirs' Property

Central Appalachia has one of the highest disability rates in the country- well above the national average, and higher than most of the rest of the Appalachian region. A significant share of families here have at least one member who depends on Medicaid, Medicare, or SSI. For a family trust intended to hold land for multiple generations, that reality can't be an afterthought.

The ability to decant into a special needs trust means a family doesn't have to choose between including a disabled family member in a trust's benefits and protecting that same person's access to the healthcare and support they depend on. It's a meaningful, practical tool for exactly the kind of family this region has in high numbers and one more reason a trust set up years ago is worth periodically revisiting with an attorney, rather than treated as a document you sign once and never look at again.

Looking Ahead

Senate Bill 50 doesn't solve heirs' property. No single law can undo decades of fractured titles, or guarantee that every family talks through what happens to their land before it's too late. But it does reshape the landscape families are working with- sometimes in ways that help, and sometimes in ways that come with real tradeoffs worth understanding clearly rather than glossing over.

A surviving spouse may now inherit everything outright, simplifying ownership at that first death but placing more trust in what happens down the road. A revocable trust remains one of the best tools for keeping land together but it isn't the dower shield some families might assume it is. Adoption no longer offers a backdoor into inheritance the way it once could. Estate records carry more privacy protection than before. And new tools- electronic wills, more flexible decanting, broader access to special needs trusts- give families and the attorneys helping them more ways to build a plan that actually fits their circumstances, whether that's a family spread out across the state or a household caring for a family member with a disability.

What hasn't changed is the most important thing: none of these updates matter without a plan in place. SB 50 changes the rules for families who die without a will and for families building trusts, but it doesn't write that will or set up that trust for you. There is still a conversation to be had (preferably with an attorney) about your specific family, your specific land, and your specific goals. That's exactly the conversation our clinics exist to make possible. If you own land in Eastern Kentucky and haven't yet made a plan for what happens to it, we'd encourage you to reach out and start that conversation with us, before the rules- new or old- end up making the decision for you.

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About the Author

Dani Burns is a Kentucky attorney and writer who earned their Juris Doctor from the University of Louisville Brandeis School of Law. Her interests include civil rights, constitutional law, and access to justice.