Skip to content
Miller Trust Guide
KY · Guide

Kentucky Qualifying Income Trust Requirements, Explained

Kentucky does not publish a fill-in Qualified Income Trust form, and the trust must be drafted by an attorney (or, where Kentucky permits it, you). DMS's own published policy (907 KAR 20:030, Section 3(5) ("Treatment of Trusts" — qualifying income trust); DCBS Operations Manual Volume IVA, MS 3505) sets out exactly what a compliant trust must contain — this guide explains those requirements in plain language, cited clause by clause, so you can evaluate an attorney's engagement and read a drafted trust with informed eyes. This guide is informational only and is not legal advice — it does not determine your need for a trust, and it does not draft, execute, or gather information for one.

What usually happens

Kentucky doesn't publish a fill-in form, so the trust has to be drafted to DMS's requirements, and an elder-law attorney quotes $1,000–$2,500 to research and draft it. Once it's signed, you take it to the bank, where the branch has never opened one of these and says no.

Meanwhile the month is running out. In Kentucky, coverage can't start before the month the trust is funded, so a month that slips is another month of private-pay nursing care at $9,718–$11,254.

This applies when the person who needs care has gross monthly income over Kentucky's income cap of $2,982, whether you're their child, their spouse, or a professional helping them.

Free: the questions to ask a Kentucky bank before your first visit

6 questions for a five-minute phone call, so you find out whether a branch knows how to open this account before you make the drive. Emailed now, then 4 short follow-ups over the next 10 days — then we stop.

Email only — we never ask for income, age, or family details, and never sell your address.

Kentucky does not publish a fill-in Qualified Income Trust form, so the trust is drafted — by an attorney, or by you where Kentucky permits it — to meet Kentucky Department for Medicaid Services's own published requirements. This is not a step-by-step execution guide: it explains what the law requires, so you can evaluate an attorney's engagement and read a drafted trust with informed eyes. We do not draft, provide sample language for, or review a trust.

What a compliant Kentucky trust must contain

Kentucky does not publish a fill-in Qualifying Income Trust form. Form MAP-007, the Department for Medicaid Services' only QIT-related document, is a one-page notice, not an instrument -- it states outright: "To establish a QIT contact an attorney or Legal Aid... The Medicaid office will not prepare a QIT." There is no current public instrument to link to, fill in, or complete. What follows instead is a plain-language explanation of what 907 KAR 20:030, Section 3(5) requires a compliant trust to contain, cited clause by clause to the actual regulation text and to DCBS's own internal procedures manual (Operations Manual Vol. IVA, MS 3505) -- written so you can evaluate an attorney's engagement and read a drafted trust with informed eyes, not so you can draft one yourself.

8 required provisions — every one of them has to be in the document your attorney drafts:

  • Established in Kentucky, for the individual's benefit

  • Composed solely of the individual's own income -- no resources, no one else's money

  • Genuinely irrevocable

  • Names the state as remainder beneficiary

  • Held in its own separate account, at a bank that operates in Kentucky

  • Executed by someone with the authority to do so

  • Limited to two permitted uses

  • Distributions made monthly, or by the end of the following month

That's the checklist — what has to be covered. The guide explains each one clause by clause, in plain language, with the exact DMS citation behind it, so you can read a drafted trust against it line by line instead of taking your attorney's word that it's complete.

The two questions families ask most after this are about opening the bank account in Kentucky and the funding timeline — see how long setting up a Kentucky Miller Trust takes.

The step that isn't really paperwork

Opening the bank account is where families actually lose time — most branches have never opened this kind of trust account before. Free one-pager: the questions to ask before you drive to a branch, emailed now. Then 4 more short emails over the next 10 days — then we stop. No ongoing newsletter.

Email only — we never ask for income, age, or family details, and never sell your address.

Common questions

What do you need before you start setting up a Kentucky Miller Trust?
Proof of the applicant's gross monthly income (a Social Security award letter, pension statements), and confirmation that income is actually over Kentucky's $2,982/month cap — a Miller Trust only matters if both are true. Knowing who will serve as trustee ahead of time also speeds up the rest of the process. States differ on whether the applicant can serve as their own trustee, so check what DMS says before you choose.
Is setting up a Kentucky Miller Trust something you can do yourself?
Kentucky does not publish a fill-in Qualified Income Trust form, and this guide does not walk through a self-directed execution path the way our guides for other states do — it explains what DMS's policy requires so you can evaluate an attorney's engagement and read a drafted trust with informed eyes. We do not draft the trust or gather information for one.