Power of attorney, health care directive and guardianship in Kentucky

Financial power of attorney in Kentucky

Law and official form

Law

Uniform Power of Attorney Act

Uniform Power of Attorney Act

Yes (effective July 14, 2018)

Official form

Statutory Form Power of Attorney (KRS 457.420), with Agent's Certification (KRS 457.430)Published by Kentucky General Assembly

You do not have to use it.

Covers property only, not health care. Ends with a 'Signature and Acknowledgment' notary block.

Law: KRS 457.010-457.460 (2018 Ky. Acts ch. 185; KRS 457.420, 457.430

Signing rules

How to sign

The Act requires only your signature. If you acknowledge your signature before a notary, it is presumed genuine, and banks and others must follow the acceptance rules for an 'acknowledged' power of attorney. A power of attorney used to convey real estate is recorded like a deed.

Who signs

Signed by you, or in your conscious presence by another person you direct to sign your name. If someone else signs for you, the power of attorney must state the reason.

Notary

Not required

Witnesses

None required

Agent's acknowledgment

No agent signature is required. A person accepts appointment by acting as agent or by other conduct showing acceptance, unless the document says otherwise.

Law: KRS 457.130

Law: KRS 457.050, 457.190, 457.200, 382.370

Durable and springing

Is it durable?

A power of attorney created under the chapter is durable unless it expressly says it ends when you become incapacitated.

Law: KRS 457.040

Durable unless it says otherwise?

Yes: it continues if you lose capacity unless it says otherwise.

Starting later (springing)

It is effective when signed unless it says it starts on a future date or event. You can name who decides that the event happened. If it starts on your incapacity and no one you named can decide, it starts when a physician, advanced practice registered nurse, licensed psychologist, or qualified social worker or Cabinet employee, or an attorney or judge, determines in writing that you are incapacitated.

Law: KRS 457.090, as amended effective July 15, 2026

What an agent can and cannot do

Needs express permission

• Create, amend, revoke or end a living (inter vivos) trust
• Make a gift
• Create or change rights of survivorship
• Create or change a beneficiary designation
• Delegate authority granted under the power of attorney
• Waive your right to be a beneficiary of a joint and survivor annuity, including a retirement plan survivor benefit
• Exercise fiduciary powers you have authority to delegate
• Access the content of your electronic communications

No power of attorney can

Unless the power of attorney says otherwise, an agent who is not your ancestor, spouse or descendant may not use it to give themselves, or someone they must support, an interest in your property. The chapter does not cover health care decisions unless the power of attorney says so.

Law: KRS 457.245(2); KRS 457.030(2)

Law: KRS 457.245(1)

Agent duties, pay and court review

Agent duties

• Act according to your reasonable expectations, if known, and otherwise in your best interest
• Act in good faith and only within the authority granted
• Act loyally for your benefit and avoid conflicts of interest
• Use the care, competence and diligence ordinarily used by agents
• Keep a record of all receipts, payments and transactions
• Cooperate with your health care decision-maker
• Try to preserve your estate plan, if known and in your best interest

Agent pay

Unless the power of attorney says otherwise, an agent is entitled to reimbursement of reasonable expenses and to reasonable compensation.

Law: KRS 457.120

Asking a court to review an agent

You, the agent, a guardian or conservator, your health care decision-maker, your spouse, parent, descendant or presumptive heir, a beneficiary, a protective agency, your caregiver, or a person asked to accept the power of attorney can petition the District Court to construe it or review the agent's conduct. The court must dismiss the petition if you ask, unless it finds you lack capacity to revoke.

Law: KRS 457.160

Law: KRS 457.140

When it ends and how to revoke it

It ends when

• You die
• You become incapacitated, if the power of attorney is not durable
• A court appoints a guardian or conservator of your estate or other fiduciary for some or all of your property, unless the court specifically keeps the power of attorney in effect
• You revoke it
• It says it ends, or its stated purpose is accomplished
• The agent dies, becomes incapacitated or resigns, or you revoke the agent's authority, and no other agent is named
• An action is filed for dissolution, annulment or legal separation from an agent who is your spouse

Divorce ends a spouse's authority

Yes · Divorce rules in Kentucky (Divorce Law Map)

How to revoke

You can revoke a power of attorney or an agent's authority. The Act does not set a required method for an unrecorded power of attorney. Signing a new power of attorney does not revoke an earlier one unless the new one says so.

Telling others

Tell the agent and every bank or business that has a copy. An agent or other person who acts in good faith without actual knowledge that the power of attorney or the agent's authority has ended is protected.

If it was recorded

A recorded power of attorney to convey or release property is not treated as revoked until a written revocation, signed and acknowledged like a deed, is lodged for record in the office where the power is recorded, or a memorandum of revocation signed by you and attested by the clerk is made on the margin of the record.

Law: KRS 457.100; KRS 457.100(1)(d), (4), (6); KRS 382.370

Banks, other states and real estate

Banks and other businesses

A person asked to accept a notarized (acknowledged) power of attorney must accept it, or within 7 business days ask for an agent's certification, an English translation or a lawyer's opinion, and then accept it within 5 business days after receiving it, unless a legal reason to refuse applies (for example, a good-faith belief it is invalid, or a report to the Cabinet for Health and Family Services of suspected abuse or exploitation). A person may not demand a different form. Wrongful refusal can lead to a court order and liability for reasonable attorney's fees and costs. A photocopy or electronically sent copy has the same effect as the original.

Law: KRS 457.190, 457.200; KRS 457.060(4)

Signed in another state

A power of attorney signed outside Kentucky is valid in Kentucky if, when signed, it complied with the law of the jurisdiction that governs its meaning (the one named in it, or where it was signed) or the federal military power of attorney rules.

Law: KRS 457.060(3), 457.070

Real estate

A power of attorney to convey or release real or personal property may be acknowledged and recorded in the proper office in the same way as a conveyance; if the conveyance must be recorded, the power must be recorded too.

Law: KRS 382.370

Health care directive in Kentucky

The document and its form

Document

Living Will Directive (advance directive designating a health care surrogate)

Official form

Living Will Directive (KRS 311.625), in the Attorney General's Kentucky Living Will PacketPublished by Office of the Kentucky Attorney General (also a Spanish packet)Version: Packet PDF last modified September 2019; form text matches KRS 311.625 (amended 2013)

You do not have to use it.

Living will

Living Will Directive

Part of the directive.

The same form lets you refuse or request life-prolonging treatment and tube feeding if you have a terminal condition or become permanently unconscious, name a surrogate, and state your wishes on organ donation.

Law: KRS 311.625; KRS 311.623, 311.625

Signing rules

How to sign

Date and sign the Living Will Directive in front of two qualified adult witnesses, or acknowledge it before a notary public.

Who signs

Signed by you, or at your direction, and dated, in writing.

Notary

A notary or witnesses (your choice)

Witnesses

2 (instead of a notary)

Who cannot witness

Either two or more adult witnesses who sign in your presence and in each other's presence, or a notary public. None of these may be a witness or the notary: a blood relative; a person who would inherit from you under Kentucky's descent and distribution law; an employee of a health care facility where you are a patient (unless serving as the notary); your attending physician; or anyone directly financially responsible for your health care.

Nursing facilities and special settings

An employee of a health care facility where you are a patient may not witness (but may serve as the notary). An employee, owner, director or officer of a facility where you live or are a patient may not be your surrogate unless related to you within the fourth degree or a member of the same religious or fraternal order.

Law: KRS 311.625(2), (4)

Who can be your agent and what the agent can do

Who cannot be your agent

Your surrogate must be an adult. An employee, owner, director or officer of a health care facility where you are a resident or patient may not be your surrogate unless related to you within the fourth degree of consanguinity or affinity or a member of the same religious or fraternal order.

Law: KRS 311.623(1)(c), 311.625(4)

When the agent starts

The surrogate acts only when you no longer have decisional capacity; the surrogate may not decide while your attending physician finds in good faith that you have capacity.

Law: KRS 311.629(2)

Decisions an agent cannot make

The surrogate must follow your wishes in the directive and consider the attending physician's recommendation. Tube feeding and fluids may be withheld only when death is imminent, when you are permanently unconscious and your directive authorizes it, when they cannot be assimilated, or when their burden outweighs their benefit, and never if needed for comfort or pain relief. Life-sustaining treatment and nutrition must be provided during pregnancy except in the stated medical circumstances. If two or more surrogates serve, decisions must be unanimous unless the directive says otherwise.

Law: KRS 311.623(1)(c), 311.629

Revoking and conflicting documents

Revoking your agent

You can revoke the surrogate designation in whole or in part, or reduce the surrogate's powers, at any time while you have decisional capacity. A new designation revokes any earlier one unless you say otherwise.

Revoking your instructions

You can revoke the directive by a signed and dated writing, by an oral statement in front of two adults (one of whom must be a health care provider), or by destroying it (or having someone destroy it in your presence at your direction). An oral revocation overrides any earlier written directive. Revocation is effective immediately, but the doctor or facility need not follow it until they receive notice.

Telling others

Tell your attending physician and health care facility; on receiving notice they must record the time, date and place in your medical record.

Conflicting documents

An oral revocation by a person with decisional capacity overrides any earlier written directive, and a new surrogate designation revokes an earlier one unless stated otherwise.

Law: KRS 311.627(2), (4)

Law: KRS 311.627

If you have no directive

Who decides without a directive

If your physician has determined that you lack decisional capacity and you have no directive (or it does not cover the decision), the first reasonably available, willing and competent person in this order may decide. Psychiatric hospitalization under this law is limited to 14 consecutive days without a court order.

1. Court-appointed guardian, if medical decisions are within the guardianship
2. Attorney-in-fact under a durable power of attorney that specifically includes health care decisions
3. Spouse
4. Adult child (or the majority of available adult children)
5. Parents
6. Nearest living relative (or the majority of those of the same relation)
7. An adult friend who kept regular contact and knows your activities, health and beliefs

Law: KRS 311.631

Other states, registry and medical orders

POLST (medical orders)

Kentucky MOST (Medical Orders for Scope of Treatment), the standardized form of the Kentucky Board of Medical Licensure

Official page

Law: KRS 311.6225, 311.623(2)-(3); KRS 201 KAR 9:470

Guardianship and conservatorship in Kentucky

What guardianship or conservatorship is

What it is called

Limited guardian, guardian, limited conservator, conservator (and standby appointees)

When a court may appoint one

Guardianship and conservatorship are used only as necessary, to encourage maximum self-reliance and independence, and only to the extent of the person's actual mental and adaptive limitations; partial (limited) guardianship or conservatorship is the preferred form. An interdisciplinary evaluation report by at least three professionals is filed before the hearing. The Commonwealth must prove disability or partial disability by clear and convincing evidence, and the hearing is a jury trial unless the conditions for a bench trial are met.

Law: KRS 387.500, 387.540, 387.570

Kinds

• Limited guardian
• Guardian
• Limited conservator
• Conservator
• Standby guardian or conservator

Law: KRS 387.500-387.770

Who can ask, which court and your own choice

Who may ask

Any interested person, or the person who needs guardianship or conservatorship.

Law: KRS 387.530(1)

Court

District Court of the county where the person lives or is domiciled.

Law: KRS 387.520

Choosing your own

In a power of attorney you may nominate a limited conservator, conservator, limited guardian or guardian; the court treats it as your preference and gives it due consideration.

Law: KRS 457.080(1), 387.600

Effect on a power of attorney

If a court appoints a limited conservator, conservator, limited guardian or guardian of your estate, or another fiduciary for some or all of your property, the power of attorney ends unless the court specifically keeps it in effect. The petition must list any agent under a durable power of attorney and any health care surrogate.

Law: KRS 457.080(2), 457.100(1)(c); KRS 387.530(1)(j)

Cost, fee waiver and forms

Forms

• Petition to Determine if Disabled (AOC-740, Rev. 4-26)

Other options and where to report abuse

Less restrictive options

• Durable power of attorney and Living Will Directive: Agents and surrogates you name can act without a court case.
• Limited guardianship or conservatorship: Kentucky law makes partial (limited) guardianship or conservatorship the preferred form when some protection is needed.

Report abuse or exploitation

Cabinet for Health and Family Services, Department for Community Based Services, Adult Protection Branch · 1-877-597-2331

Call or text the Eldercare Locator to find your local adult protective services: 1-800-677-1116 · eldercare.acl.gov

Good to know in Kentucky

• A Kentucky Living Will Directive may be signed before two adult witnesses OR a notary; blood relatives, heirs, your attending physician and facility employees (except as notary) are barred.

  Law: KRS 311.625(2)

• Appointing a guardian or conservator of the estate ends a power of attorney unless the court keeps it in effect.

  Law: KRS 457.100(1)(c)

• Disability hearings are jury trials unless the respondent, counsel and the Commonwealth agree to a bench trial and other conditions are met.

  Law: KRS 387.570(7)

• A recorded power of attorney is revoked only by recording a written revocation where it was recorded, or by a marginal memorandum attested by the clerk.

  Law: KRS 382.370

Changes in 2024–2026

2024 Ky. Acts ch. 138 ('Seth's Law', effective July 15, 2024) amended KRS 311.631 (who may make health care decisions without a directive). 2026 Ky. Acts ch. 77 (effective July 15, 2026) amended KRS 457.090 (who may certify incapacity for a springing power of attorney) and KRS 387.610 (renewal affidavits). 2026 Ky. Acts ch. 92 (effective October 1, 2026) and 2024 Ky. Acts ch. 207 (effective July 15, 2024) amended KRS 387.540 (interdisciplinary evaluation).

Questions about powers of attorney in Kentucky