Kentucky Power of Attorney (Durable)

A Kentucky durable power of attorney keeps working after the person who signed it can no longer act. This form prepares that instrument under KRS Chapter 457, the Kentucky Uniform Power of Attorney Act, for one principal appointing one agent with an optional successor agent, laid out for recording by the county clerk under KRS 382.370 so the agent can sign a deed or mortgage in the principal's name when the time comes.

Durable by statute, and durable on its face

Kentucky made durability the default: under KRS 457.040 a power of attorney is durable unless it expressly provides that it is terminated by the incapacity of the principal. This form does not leave the point to the default. Section 6 states that the power of attorney is durable and is not terminated by the incapacity of the principal, so anyone reading the recorded instrument finds the answer printed on the page. The same section fixes the effective date as the date of execution under KRS 457.090(1) and states that the power continues until it terminates under KRS 457.100.

What the agent may do, subject by subject

Kentucky's act does not grant authority in one sweep. KRS 457.255 gives an agent the authority described in a subject section, such as KRS 457.270 for real property, when the power of attorney refers to general authority with respect to that subject, and it incorporates the whole section as if written out in full. Section 4 appoints the agent and prints the fourteen subjects of the KRS 457.420 statutory form, each with a box, from real property, banks and other financial institutions, and taxes through retirement plans and all preceding subjects. The principal marks the subjects the grant covers.

The powers this instrument withholds

KRS 457.245(1) reserves a short list of acts to an express grant: creating or changing a trust, making a gift, creating or changing rights of survivorship or a beneficiary designation, delegating the authority, waiving a survivor annuity, exercising delegated fiduciary powers, and reaching the principal's electronic communications. Section 5 states that this power of attorney grants none of them, lists each in the statute's words, and adds that the agent has no authority over health care decisions.

One signature, one notary, no witnesses

Since the 2020 amendment to KRS 457.050, a Kentucky power of attorney is signed by the principal and acknowledged before a notary public or other officer authorized to take acknowledgments; the earlier two witness requirement is gone. The acknowledgment gives the signature its statutory presumption of genuineness under KRS 457.050(2). The form carries the principal's signature block and one acknowledgment certificate in the Kentucky short form of KRS 423.160, with lines for the notary's commission number and expiration date. The agent does not sign; under KRS 457.130 the agent accepts the appointment by acting.

Recorded where the land lies

KRS 382.370 is the recording statute for a power of attorney to convey or release property. When the agent signs a conveyance that must be recorded to be good against creditors and purchasers, the power is recorded in like manner in the county where the property is located, and a recorded power is not treated as revoked until a written revocation is recorded in the same office. The form reserves the top of its first page for the clerk's recording information and runs four pages, inside the five page base fee category of KRS 64.012.

The configuration this form recites

The form identifies exactly one principal who signs in the principal's own name, one agent, and one optional successor agent who takes the same authority when the agent resigns, dies, becomes incapacitated, is not qualified, or declines to serve, the events KRS 457.110(2) lists. A parent naming an adult child to manage property and finances through a long illness presents the single principal pattern this instrument recites. The form is not set up as a springing power that waits for incapacity, as a power with coagents or a second successor, as a limited power for a single transaction, or as a power carrying any KRS 457.245(1) authority.

The download delivers the durable power of attorney as a fillable PDF with an instructions cover page, a completed example showing a Fayette County principal's finished instrument with three subjects marked, and a guide that walks through every section, the agent's authority, signing, and recording. The description and the guide describe the form and the governing Kentucky statutes in general terms; they are not legal advice.