Kentucky Qualified 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); day-to-day administration per the DCBS Operations Manual Volume IVA, MS 3505. Two agencies split the role: the Department for Community Based Services (DCBS) reviews and approves each trust at intake, while the Department for Medicaid Services (DMS) sets policy and pre-approves any expenditure outside the routine allowed categories.) 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.
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:
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Established in Kentucky, for the individual's benefit
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Composed solely of the individual's own income -- no resources, no one else's money
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Genuinely irrevocable
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Names the state as remainder beneficiary
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Held in its own separate account, at a bank that operates in Kentucky
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Executed by someone with the authority to do so
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Limited to two permitted uses
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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 Kentucky denial traps that cost families a month of coverage
Most denials are paperwork, not eligibility. This free one-pager lists every DMS denial trap with the citation behind it — emailed now. We'll also send 4 short follow-ups over the next 3 weeks (the bank step, the trustee role, when to call an attorney) — then we stop. No ongoing newsletter.