Kentucky Estate Accounting: An Executor's Guide

Kentucky asks for two documents. The first is the inventory, form AOC-841, Inventory and Appraisement of Estate (Rev. 7-26). It has five numbered sections, in order: Real Property, Motor Vehicles, Personal Property, Cash and Cash Equivalents, Other. Each line carries a date-of-death value, and the form ends in one grand total, Total Estimated Value. There are no subtotals, no encumbrance column, and no oath or notary.

The second is the settlement, which is Kentucky's word for the accounting. The formal one is form AOC-846, Settlement of Estate (Rev. 8-26). Check one box, Final, Periodic, or Proposed, and give the period. Assets and Investments carries a beginning and a current value per item. Receipts and Disbursements covers everything since the last inventory or settlement. The bottom line reads BALANCE (ASSETS + RECEIPTS - DISBURSEMENTS). A final settlement adds a page listing unpaid creditors with allowed claims and creditors with disallowed claims (KRS 395.610(5)(b)), the fees paid to you and your attorney, and a death-tax checkbox.

Both carry the same clerk instruction at the top: file under seal. The inventory is confidential, and the clerk sends a copy to the Department of Revenue (KRS 395.250(1)(b)). Settlements come under the same provisions (KRS 395.250(6)).

The AOC-841 inventory is generally due 90 days from the time you qualify (KRS 395.250(1)(a), amended effective July 15, 2026). A guide that says 60 days is quoting the old statute. Filing late starts the KRS 395.255 track, which ends at $100 for each day of unexcused failure (KRS 395.990).

Ask about the Kentucky informal settlement first. Under KRS 395.605, if every beneficiary is under no legal disability and signs a notarized affidavit of waiver (form AOC-851, one each), you file an Application for Informal Final Settlement (form AOC-850) under penalty of perjury, any time after 6 months from your appointment. One exception: a nonresiduary legatee who has already received and receipted for the legacy does not need to sign a waiver. A canceled check or signed receipt attached to the settlement is enough (KRS 395.605(2)(c); AOC-850 item 2). The court shall not require notice to any person or a hearing. A beneficiary under a disability does not automatically end the route. The court can still allow the informal filing if it finds that filing serves that person's best interests (KRS 395.605(6)).

That application contains no accounting. It states that six months have passed, that the estate is solvent, that claims and debts are paid or provided for, that death taxes are handled, that court costs are paid, and what the attorney charged. Any beneficiary may still request an accounting before signing (KRS 395.605(2)(b)). A sole beneficiary who has received their share applies alone, with no waivers needed (KRS 395.605(1)).

If someone will not sign, or the court requires it, you file the formal AOC-846 settlement with its hearing and disposing orders (AOC-846.1, AOC-846.2). The District Judge reviews it, the clerk publishes notice at least 10 days before the hearing, and exceptions come before it (KRS 395.620 through 395.625). Keep the closing order. On the informal route the court may enter an order discharging you and any surety on approval (KRS 395.605(5)); that order is AOC-850.1. On the formal route it is the Settlement Order (AOC-846.2), which closes the estate and relieves you and any surety.

• Hold off on closing until 6 months after your appointment. An informal final settlement cannot be filed before then (KRS 395.605(3)), and the creditor-claims window is still running (KRS 396.011).
• If everyone has been paid and is cooperative, take the informal route: have each beneficiary sign a verified (notarized) waiver of formal settlement (form AOC-851), then file the Application for Informal Final Settlement (form AOC-850) with the District Court under KRS 395.605, attaching proof the inheritance tax was handled; a nonresiduary legatee's signed receipt or canceled check works in place of a waiver.
• If you are the estate's only beneficiary and have received your share, you can file the informal final settlement on your own application signed under penalty of perjury, with no waivers needed (KRS 395.605(1)).
• If anyone will not sign, file a formal final settlement instead (form AOC-846, with hearing and order forms AOC-846.1/846.2): a complete account of every receipt and disbursement with supporting documentation, distributions, and the fees you and your attorney were paid; the court gives notice, holds any hearing, and confirms it (KRS 395.610-395.625).
• Once the court approves the settlement, get the order discharging you and your surety, and keep it with the estate records. On the informal route that is the order accepting the settlement (KRS 395.605(5)); on the formal route it is the court's Settlement Order (form AOC-846.2), which closes the estate and relieves you and any surety (KRS 395.620, 395.630).

Probate sits in the Probate Division of Kentucky District Court in the county where the personal representative qualified. Since July 15, 2026, the inventory and formal settlements (AOC-841/AOC-846) are confidential and filed under seal (KRS 395.250(1)(b), (6), 2026 Ky. Acts ch. 134); the informal-settlement forms carry no seal instruction.

KRS 395.150 sets the ceiling: compensation shall not exceed five percent (5%) of the value of the personal estate of the decedent, plus five percent (5%) of the income collected. It is a statutory maximum that the district court approves. Courts commonly allow it in full for a complete administration, but it is never automatic. Real estate passing directly to heirs sits outside the base. Anything above the cap takes proof submitted for unusual or extraordinary services, or for real-estate or tax work (KRS 395.150(2)). A final settlement discloses the amounts paid to the fiduciary and the attorney (KRS 395.610(5)(c)). The statute asks for figures, not a description of the work.

Software can shape the page and carry the numbers. It cannot know the caption: Case No., Court, County, and Division. (Kentucky probate sits in District Court in the county where you qualified.) It also cannot know each vehicle's VIN, each account's type, or an address the description does not carry. Brokerage and business interests print under Other. Whether securities belong there or under Cash and Cash Equivalents is a call the form leaves open.

It also cannot decide what to leave off. Property passing outside probate is generally excluded: survivorship joint property, payable- and transfer-on-death accounts, and insurance or retirement money with living named beneficiaries. That is consistent with KRS 391.360 and 395.015(3)(b), though the inventory statute itself lists no exclusions. Ask your attorney when an item is a close call. Property found later goes on an amended inventory (KRS 395.250(4)).

Recording is free for as long as the estate takes: every receipt and disbursement with date and payee, distributions per beneficiary, and a running balance that checks itself as you go. ExecutorLedger builds Kentucky court-style documents from those records, an inventory shaped like AOC-841 and a settlement shaped like AOC-846, ready to transcribe onto the official forms. They are not court forms, and the estate's attorney should read them first. Every document previews free with your real numbers, and $149 (one-time payment) per estate lifts the watermark. Usually less than one attorney hour, and typically reimbursable by the estate.