Kentucky Asset Search Services

County Clerk, Secretary of State and Court Records

1. County clerks, all 120 counties: Deeds and mortgages are recorded with the county clerk where the property lies (KRS 382.110(1)), and the clerk also holds lis pendens memoranda (382.440) and notices of judgment lien, which are entered in the lis pendens records (426.720(4)). Each county is searched under the subject, the spouse and every known entity.
2. Secretary of State: Corporations, LLCs and partnerships, with officers, members, managers and registered agents. Most UCC financing statements are filed centrally there; fixture filings and timber or as-extracted collateral go to the county office that records mortgages (KRS 355.9-501(1)).
3. Vehicle titles: Requested under a DPPA permissible purpose.
4. State court dockets: Civil suits, judgments and enforcement proceedings, which show existing creditors and pending claims.
5. Federal court and bankruptcy: The state has two federal districts (28 U.S.C. 97): the Eastern, sitting at Lexington, Covington, Frankfort and six other places, and the Western, sitting at Louisville, Bowling Green, Owensboro and Paducah. PACER shows federal suits, bankruptcies and federal judgments.
6. Coast Guard and FAA registries: Documented vessels and registered aircraft, which no county index shows.
7. Nationwide cross-reference: Property, entities and judgments in other states under the same names.

Just-Proportions Division Under KRS 403.190

The state is not a community property state. On divorce the court assigns each spouse’s separate property to that spouse and divides the marital property in just proportions, without regard to marital misconduct, weighing contributions (including as homemaker), the value of property set apart, the length of the marriage and economic circumstances (KRS 403.190(1)). Spouses may opt into a community property trust under KRS 386.620 to 386.624.

Property acquired after the marriage and before a decree of legal separation is presumed marital whatever the title (403.190(3)); gifts, inheritances, exchanges for premarital property and passive growth in premarital property are excluded (403.190(2)). Because the presumption turns on dates, the report gives the recording date of every parcel and the formation history of every entity under both spouses’ names. Characterization is for counsel and the court.

The Kentucky UVTA and the New Qualified Trust Statute

The state adopted the Uniform Voidable Transactions Act as KRS 378A.005 to 378A.140, effective January 1, 2016, and repealed the old fraudulent conveyance sections of KRS Chapter 378. A transfer is voidable if made with actual intent to hinder, delay or defraud any creditor, or without reasonably equivalent value while the debtor was left undercapitalized or unable to pay debts as they came due (KRS 378A.040(1)).

• Insolvent transfers (378A.050): As to existing creditors, a transfer without reasonably equivalent value is voidable if the debtor was or became insolvent, and a payment to an insider on an old debt is voidable if the debtor was insolvent and the insider had reasonable cause to know it.
• Time limits (378A.090): An actual-intent claim must be brought within 4 years of the transfer or, if later, 1 year after it was or could reasonably have been discovered. A constructive-fraud claim has 4 years; an insider-preference claim, 1 year.
• Intent factors (378A.040(2)): The court may weigh eleven listed factors, including a transfer to an insider, keeping control after the transfer, concealment, and a suit or threat of suit before the transfer. An insider transfer is a factor, not a presumption.
• Insiders (378A.010(8), (14)): For an individual debtor, insiders include relatives, a term that covers a spouse, and corporations the debtor directs, serves as an officer, or controls.
• Transferees (378A.080): Judgment may run against the first transferee or a later one, but a good-faith transferee who gave reasonably equivalent value has a defense to an actual-intent claim.
• Qualified trusts since July 15, 2026 (KRS 386.605): A qualified disposition to a qualified trust can be attacked only under the KUVTA with clear and convincing proof of intent to defraud the specific creditor, generally within 2 years of the disposition (or 6 months after discovery for an existing creditor, if later). A deed recorded with the county clerk counts as discovery. Child support, maintenance and marital property division claims are not limited.
• In bankruptcy: A trustee can avoid transfers made within 2 years before the petition under 11 U.S.C. 548.

From County Clerk Indexes to the Written Report

The subject, any spouse and every entity the Secretary of State links to them are run through each county clerk’s deed, mortgage and lis pendens indexes, state and federal court dockets, UCC records and vehicle, vessel and aircraft registries, then through property and court records in other states.

An analyst checks each hit and writes it up with its record reference, such as the deed book and page, the entity organization number or the federal case number, so it can be pulled and certified for court. Recording dates are kept, because they decide both marital classification and the KUVTA time limits.