Okay, you are asking about intestate (without a will) succession:
http://www.finance.cch.com/pops/c50s10d190_KY.asp
Kentucky Intestate Succession Laws
If any part of a Kentucky decedent's estate is not effectively disposed of by will, the intestate share will be distributed in the following order and manner, with any descendants in a class taking per stirpes the share of their respective deceased parents:
1. Surviving spouse. In most states, a surviving spouse is generally first in line to get any assets from the intestate estate. The same sort of applies in Kentucky, except that the share a surviving spouse can look forward to is miserly (to put it mildly). If you are married, you definitely don't want to go through life without a will or other means to automatically transfer assets should one of you die.
In Kentucky, a surviving spouse is entitled to the first $7,500 of decedent's personal property or money (on hand or in a bank account). (This amount is also available to decedent's children if there is no surviving spouse.) The surviving spouse can petition the probate court to withdraw $1,000 of this amount early. Other than that, a surviving spouse has to wait in line to get anything as indicated below.
2. Distribution order generally. Any part of the intestate estate not passing to the surviving spouse as indicated above, passes as follows to:
1. Decedent's children and their descendants.
2. Decedent's parent or parents equally.
3. Decedent's brothers and sisters and their descendants.
4. Decedent's surviving spouse.
5. One-half to decedent's maternal relatives and one-half to decedent's paternal relatives, descending in the following order:
1. Decedent's grandparent or grandparents equally.
2. Decedent's aunts and uncles and their descendants.
3. Decedent's great-grandparent or great-grandparents equally.
4. Siblings of decedent's grandparents and their descendants.
5. Decedent's nearest lineal ancestor and their descendants.
6. If there are no relatives on one side of decedent's family, the whole goes to the relatives on the other side.
7. As a next to last resort, decedent's estate will go to a predeceased spouse's family and get distribute according to the intestate succession rules above.
3. State of Kentucky. If there is no taker under any of the above provisions, the intestate estate will go (escheats) to the state of Kentucky.
Kentucky Intestate Succession Law Fun Facts
* A child of decedent, born within 10 months after the decedent's death, is still eligible to inherit from the decedent. For intestate succession purposes, the child is considered to have been alive at the time of the decedent's death.
* Collateral relatives of the half-blood inherit only half as much as relatives of the whole-blood.
* Neglectful parents get neglected! Officially known as Mandy Jo's Law, a Kentucky law prevents a parent who willfully abandoned the care and maintenance of their child from inheriting the child's estate by default or from administering the estate. Abandonment includes failure to pay court ordered child support. The neglectful parent is treated as if he or she had predeceased the child, making them ineligible to inherit via intestate succession. However, a neglectful parent may reestablish their eligibility to inherit if at least one year of continuous support is provided to the child immediately before the child's death.
* Kentucky's intestate succession laws, as well as other related laws, can be found in Title XXXIV of the Kentucky Revised Statutes.
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