Updated September 7, 2026. Quick answer: Kentucky does not use the death-based or publication-triggered rule most states use. Deadline once a personal representative is appointed: 6 months after the appointment of the personal representative.
What is the creditor-claim deadline in Kentucky?
| Deadline once a personal representative is appointed | 6 months after the appointment of the personal representative |
“…barred…unless presented within…six (6) months after the appointment of the personal representative, or where no personal representative has been appointed, within two (2) years after the decedent’s death.”
Source: Ky. Rev. Stat. § 396.011
What makes Kentucky different
Kentucky’s clock is triggered by appointment of the personal representative, not by newspaper publication; a short-lived 2020 published-notice regime (KRS 396.012) was itself repealed in 2021.
Does this deadline apply the same way if the estate never opens probate?
These deadlines are creatures of the probate process itself; they run once an estate is opened (by publication, mailing, appointment, or the grant of letters, depending on Kentucky’s own rule above). A creditor of a decedent whose estate never enters probate at all is not cut off by this particular statute, though the underlying debt’s own ordinary statute of limitations still applies.
Sources
| Statute | Ky. Rev. Stat. § 396.011 |
| Kentucky courts (general reference) | Kentucky judicial branch |
| Confidence | High |
Every statute quoted on this page was read directly from the state’s own legislature/code site this session, or, where that site blocked automated access, from a reputable legal-citation mirror quoting the same official text with its official citation (disclosed below). General information, not legal advice; the exact deadline in a given estate can turn on facts (whether a personal representative was appointed, whether notice was ever published or mailed) that only your own probate court file can confirm.