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Nebraska Exempt Property
Support GuideNebraska15 min read

Nebraska Exempt Property

Nebraska sets aside $12,500 of household furniture, cars, furnishings, appliances and personal effects for the surviving spouse, ahead of nearly every claim.

By Settled Editorial

Nebraska hands a surviving spouse $12,500 of household goods before a single creditor is paid. Neb. Rev. Stat. 30-2323(1) sets aside value not exceeding that amount in household furniture, automobiles, furnishings, appliances and personal effects, measured in excess of any security interests in those items, for the surviving spouse of a person who died domiciled in Nebraska. It is one of three protections that come off the top of a Nebraska estate, and it is the one people most often mistake for a list of things creditors can never touch.

Every figure below was read on September 10, 2026 at the Nebraska Legislature's own statute pages, with each section's amendment chain read beside it. That second step matters in Nebraska, because the revisor prints no pending-version banner and puts the date band inside the operative sentence instead. Section 30-2323 was last amended by Laws 2026, LB838, section 17, which added a third band that does not begin until January 1, 2027. Nebraska probate is heard in the county court, so the file that resolves an allowance sits with one clerk, and the Nebraska county court directory says which one. This page is general information about Nebraska law rather than advice about one estate. It is not legal advice.

The Figure Is Banded By Date Of Death, Not By Filing Date

Section 30-2323(1) prints three amounts in a single sentence, each tied to when the decedent died.

Date of deathExempt property amount
Before January 1, 2011$5,000
On or after January 1, 2011 and before January 1, 2027$12,500
On or after January 1, 2027$17,500

The middle band is today's answer. The 2027 figure was added by Laws 2026, LB838, section 17 and is not yet operative, so quoting $17,500 for a death that happened this year states the wrong number. The reverse mistake is just as easy. A Nebraska estate opened in 2027 for a person who died in 2026 still takes $12,500, because the statute keys on the death rather than on the petition.

Two consequences follow from the banding. Any national summary that gives one Nebraska number without a date qualifier is describing one band and calling it the rule. And an estate that sits unopened across the turn of the year gains nothing by waiting.

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Five Categories, One Combined Ceiling

The section names household furniture, automobiles, furnishings, appliances and personal effects. That is the whole list. Real estate is not on it, retirement accounts are not on it, and bank balances are not on it.

The ceiling is combined rather than per item. A spouse cannot claim $12,500 of furniture and another $12,500 of cars. The measure is total value across the five categories, and the statute says that value is taken in excess of any security interests in the items selected. A truck worth $18,000 with $14,000 still owed on it contributes $4,000 to the total, not $18,000. That single phrase does more work than any other in the section, because the assets a family reaches for first are usually the financed ones.

Nothing in section 30-2323 requires the property to be sold, appraised by the court or turned into cash. The spouse selects items and takes them. Where the family wants money rather than furniture, the deficiency rule in the next subsection is what converts the entitlement into value.

When The Estate Cannot Cover It

Section 30-2323(2) is the part that turns a set-aside into a claim on the estate. If encumbered chattels are selected and the value in excess of security interests, together with other exempt property, comes to less than the banded amount, or if there is simply not that much exempt property in the estate at all, the spouse or children are entitled to other assets of the estate to make up the difference.

That deficiency right carries a priority and two limits, and the limits are where Nebraska departs from the pattern most probate codes follow.

  • It has priority over all claims against the estate except the costs and expenses of administration.
  • It yields to a claim filed by the Department of Health and Human Services under Neb. Rev. Stat. 68-919, notwithstanding the order of payment set by Neb. Rev. Stat. 30-2487.
  • It abates as far as necessary to permit prior payment of the homestead allowance and the family allowance.

The Medicaid carve-out is the Nebraska-specific one. Section 30-2487 puts the department's claim in the fourth class, with the reasonable and necessary medical and hospital expenses of the last illness, ahead of general creditors but behind administration costs and funeral expenses. Section 30-2323(2) then lifts that claim above the exempt property deficiency right by name. An estate with a Medicaid history therefore cannot be worked out by reading the Nebraska order of payment alone, because this allowance sits in a different place in the queue than its own priority sentence first suggests.

The abatement rule points the other way. Where the estate is thin, the homestead allowance and the family allowance are paid first and the exempt property deficiency shrinks to fit. A family that needs maintenance money during administration should read the family allowance before choosing which request to press.

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The Three Allowances Stack

Section 30-2323(3) says the rights it grants are in addition to any benefit or share passing to the surviving spouse or children by the decedent's will, by intestate succession or by way of elective share. The section also makes clear the exempt property amount is in addition to the homestead allowance.

So a Nebraska surviving spouse may take all three, and each has its own statute and its own number.

  1. Homestead allowance, Neb. Rev. Stat. 30-2322. $20,000 in cash for a death on or after January 1, 2011 and before January 1, 2027, rising to $25,000 after that. It is a cash entitlement, not a right to stay in the house.
  2. Exempt property, Neb. Rev. Stat. 30-2323. The $12,500 described here.
  3. Family allowance, Neb. Rev. Stat. 30-2324 and 30-2325. A reasonable allowance for maintenance during administration, with a ceiling on what the personal representative may set without going to court.

None of the three is charged against the will's gifts unless the will says otherwise, and none of them requires the spouse to make an election. The elective share is a separate and much larger mechanism with its own nine-month deadline, and Nebraska surviving spouse rights covers how it interacts with these allowances.

Two further points are easy to get backwards. The Nebraska probate homestead allowance is not the chapter 40 homestead exemption. Neb. Rev. Stat. 40-101 protects $120,000 of value in a home against creditors of a living claimant, and the two figures describe different things. The debtor exemptions in Neb. Rev. Stat. 25-1556, which cover a motor vehicle interest and household goods for someone facing execution, are not probate allowances either. Section 25-1556(2) directs the Department of Revenue to adjust those figures for inflation every fifth year beginning in 2023, so the amounts still printed in the statute may no longer be the operative ones. Nothing in that section adds to what a surviving spouse takes from an estate.

Who Takes It When There Is No Spouse

If there is no surviving spouse, section 30-2323(1) gives the decedent's children the same total value, jointly. One exception is written into the statute: a child the decedent disinherited by will takes nothing under it.

Nebraska then defines that term unusually narrowly, and the definition sits in the section itself. Disinherited means providing in one's will that a child shall take nothing, or a nominal amount of ten dollars or less, from the estate. A child who is simply not mentioned is not disinherited by that test. Neither is a child who takes a small but real share. Paraphrasing the rule as being left out of the will changes the answer for a common fact pattern, so it is worth quoting rather than summarising.

Survivorship also has a threshold. Neb. Rev. Stat. 30-2304 deems a person who fails to survive the decedent by one hundred twenty hours to have predeceased, and it names homestead allowance and exempt property expressly alongside intestate succession. A spouse who dies four days after the decedent is treated as having died first for these purposes. Who counts as a child in the first place is answered by the Nebraska intestate succession rules.

How The Selection Actually Happens

Section 30-2325 is the procedural half, and it answers the questions section 30-2323 leaves open.

Who picks. The surviving spouse, the guardians of the minor children, or children who are adults may select property of the estate as homestead allowance and exempt property. If the estate is otherwise sufficient, property specifically devised by the will is not used to satisfy those rights, so a spouse choosing items should not reach for the clock left to a named grandchild while unclaimed property remains.

If nobody picks. After such notice as the court may require, the personal representative may make the selections where the family is unable or fails to do so within a reasonable time, or where there are no guardians for the minor children. That is a power, not a duty to wait indefinitely.

How it is recorded. The personal representative may execute an instrument or deed of distribution to establish the new owner's title to property taken as homestead allowance or exempt property, and may disburse estate funds in payment of the family allowance and of any part of the homestead allowance payable in cash. For a titled vehicle, that instrument is what the county treasurer's office will want to see.

If someone objects. The personal representative, or any interested person aggrieved by a selection, determination, payment, proposed payment or failure to act, may petition the county court for appropriate relief.

When it has to be done. Section 30-2325 sets no deadline for the selection. The practical limit is that the allowances have to be resolved before the estate closes. Where the estate is being handled without a lawyer, the sequence in probate without a lawyer in Nebraska puts the selection alongside the inventory rather than at the end.

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Once Determined, It Vests As Of The Date Of Death

Section 30-2325 carries a vesting rule that decides what happens when the surviving spouse dies before the estate is finished. The homestead allowance, the exempt property and the family allowance, as finally determined, vest in the surviving spouse as of the date of the decedent's death as a vested indefeasible right of property. They survive as an asset of that spouse's own estate if they are still unpaid when the spouse dies, and they do not terminate on the spouse's death or on remarriage.

Two estates, one entitlement. Where a widow dies eight months into her husband's probate with the allowances determined but unpaid, the money is owed to her estate rather than lost. Where she remarries first, nothing changes either.

What The Allowance Does For Small Estates

These are protections rather than a shortcut, with one real interaction. Neb. Rev. Stat. 30-24,127 lets a personal representative close an estate by summary administrative procedure where the value of the entire estate, less liens and encumbrances, does not exceed the sum of the homestead allowance, exempt property, the family allowance, costs and expenses of administration, reasonable funeral expenses, and the reasonable and necessary medical and hospital expenses of the last illness.

That test has no printed dollar figure. It is an arithmetic comparison, and three of its six terms are the allowances described on this page. Raising the allowances therefore widens the summary route without anyone amending section 30-24,127, which is part of what Laws 2026, LB838 does on January 1, 2027. The Nebraska small estate routes compare that procedure against the two affidavit routes, which appoint nobody and raise no allowance question at all.

Common Questions

How much is Nebraska exempt property worth?

$12,500 for a death on or after January 1, 2011 and before January 1, 2027. Neb. Rev. Stat. 30-2323(1) gives the surviving spouse of a person who died domiciled in Nebraska value not exceeding that amount in household furniture, automobiles, furnishings, appliances and personal effects, measured in excess of any security interests in those items. The figure rises to $17,500 for a death on or after January 1, 2027 under Laws 2026, LB838, section 17. The band is keyed to the date of death, so the date on the death certificate decides which number applies.

What counts as exempt property in Nebraska?

Five named categories and nothing else: household furniture, automobiles, furnishings, appliances and personal effects. Neb. Rev. Stat. 30-2323(1) lists them, and the $12,500 is a single combined ceiling across all five rather than a figure per item. Value is measured in excess of any security interests, so a car with a loan against it counts only for its equity. Real estate is not on the list. The house is dealt with by the separate homestead allowance in Neb. Rev. Stat. 30-2322.

Who gets Nebraska exempt property if there is no surviving spouse?

The decedent's children, jointly, to the same total value. Neb. Rev. Stat. 30-2323(1) says so, with one exception written into the section: a child the decedent disinherited by will takes nothing under it. The statute defines disinherited narrowly, as providing in one's will that a child shall take nothing or a nominal amount of ten dollars or less from the estate. A child simply left unmentioned is not disinherited by that definition.

What happens if the estate has less than $12,500 of exempt property?

The shortfall is made up from other estate assets. Neb. Rev. Stat. 30-2323(2) gives the spouse or children a right to other assets of the estate where encumbered chattels were selected, where the value in excess of security interests plus other exempt property is less than the banded amount, or where there simply is not that much exempt property in the estate. That deficiency right has priority over all claims except the costs and expenses of administration, and it abates as far as necessary to let the homestead allowance and the family allowance be paid first.

Does Nebraska exempt property come out of what the will leaves the spouse?

No, unless the will says otherwise. Neb. Rev. Stat. 30-2323(3) makes the rights it grants additional to any benefit or share passing to the surviving spouse or children by the will of the decedent, by intestate succession or by way of elective share. It is also in addition to the homestead allowance under Neb. Rev. Stat. 30-2322 and the family allowance under Neb. Rev. Stat. 30-2324, so the three stack rather than compete.

Is Nebraska exempt property subject to inheritance tax?

No. Neb. Rev. Stat. 77-2004(3) exempts the homestead allowance, the exempt property amount and the family maintenance allowance from Nebraska inheritance tax. That matters more here than in most states, because Nebraska still levies an inheritance tax and the county collects it. Taking value as an allowance rather than as a devise can change what the county assesses.

Does a Medicaid claim beat the Nebraska exempt property allowance?

It beats the deficiency right, which is the part of the allowance that reaches other estate assets. Neb. Rev. Stat. 30-2323(2) gives that right priority over all claims except administration costs, except that it yields to a claim filed by the Department of Health and Human Services under Neb. Rev. Stat. 68-919, notwithstanding the order of payment in Neb. Rev. Stat. 30-2487. That carve-out is unusual, and it is why a Nebraska estate with a Medicaid history has to be worked out on paper rather than assumed.

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It is not legal advice.

Information current as of September 10, 2026

Settled Estate is not a law firm, and this content is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Probate laws and procedures in Nebraska can change. Consult with a qualified attorney for advice specific to your situation. Full disclaimer.

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