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Nebraska Revocable Living Trust
Support GuideNebraska40 min read

Nebraska Revocable Living Trust

Nebraska's trust code makes a living trust revocable by default, and LB838 changed six sections of it in 2026. How to create one, fund it, and back it up.

By Settled Editorial

A Nebraska revocable living trust holds your property while you are alive and hands it to the people you name when you die, with no county court case for anything titled inside it. You stay in charge and can change or cancel it. It reaches only the assets you actually retitle, and that gap is where most Nebraska trusts fall short.

Nebraska's trust code arrived as Laws 2003, LB 130 and switched on for January 1, 2005. Neb. Rev. Stat. § 30-3801 names it the Nebraska Uniform Trust Code and runs it from section 30-3801 to section 30-38,115, and section 30-38,110(a) applies it to trusts created before, on, or after that date. The Legislature then moved the code again in 2026: LB838 amended sections 30-3801, 30-3803 and 30-38,103 and added three new sections, and the revisor prints Operative Date: July 18, 2026 under the amendment chain on each of them. Every rule below was read at the statute rather than taken from a template.

This guide covers what the trust does, what Nebraska requires to create one, what the 2026 act changed, how funding works here, why registration is a choice rather than a duty, the pour-over will that backs the trust up, the three deadlines that start at your death, and what a Nebraska revocable trust does not do.

What A Nebraska Revocable Living Trust Does

A revocable living trust is a written arrangement holding assets for your benefit while you live and for your beneficiaries after you die. "Living" means you sign it now rather than creating it through your will. "Revocable" means you can undo it.

You keep control. Neb. Rev. Stat. § 30-3855(b) says that while a trust is revocable the rights of the beneficiaries are subject to the control of the settlor, and the duties of the trustee are owed exclusively to the settlor. Subsection (a) lets the trustee follow a direction from the settlor that runs contrary to the terms of the trust. Your children have no standing to inspect the books while you are alive and competent.

No court watches it. Section 30-3812(b) says a trust is not subject to continuing judicial supervision unless the court orders it, and subsection (a) lets a court intervene only when an interested person invokes its jurisdiction or the law provides for it.

It skips probate for what is inside it. Property titled to the trust is not part of the probate estate, so your successor trustee takes over without an appointment, letters, or an inventory. Nothing else about the property changes.

It does nothing for what is outside it. A trust signed and left in a drawer avoids nothing. That is the most common Nebraska trust failure, and the fix is the funding section below. The other Nebraska ways to skip probate reach assets the trust never touched.

Creating One: What Nebraska Requires

Neb. Rev. Stat. § 30-3827 gives three methods:

  1. Transfer of property to another person as trustee during your lifetime, or by will or other disposition taking effect at your death
  2. Declaration by the owner of property that the owner holds identifiable property as trustee, except as required by a statute outside the trust code
  3. Exercise of a power of appointment in favor of a trustee

Section 30-3828(a) then sets five conditions. A trust is created only if the settlor has capacity and is eighteen years of age or older or is not a minor, the settlor indicates an intention to create the trust, the trust has a definite beneficiary or is a charitable trust, an animal trust under section 30-3834, or a noncharitable purpose trust under section 30-3835, the trustee has duties to perform, and the same person is not the sole trustee and sole beneficiary. Read the fifth twice. A single Nebraska adult who names herself sole trustee and sole beneficiary with nobody taking after her has not created a trust. Naming remainder beneficiaries answers it, and every drafted trust does.

Capacity is the will standard. Section 30-3853 says the capacity required to create, amend, revoke, or add property to a revocable trust, or to direct the trustee's actions, is the same as that required to make a will.

Here is what Nebraska does not require. The trust code carries no notary, witness, or attestation requirement for the trust instrument itself. Section 30-3833 goes further and says a trust need not be evidenced by a trust instrument, though an oral trust and its terms can be established only by clear and convincing evidence. Nobody has to file the document anywhere.

Section 30-3844 gives Nebraska trusts the same shortcut wills have for household goods. A trust may refer to a written statement or list disposing of tangible personal property not otherwise given away by the trust, other than money, evidences of indebtedness, documents of title, securities, and property used in a trade or business. The writing has to carry a date or be the only such writing, be handwritten by the settlor or signed by the settlor, and describe the items and the recipients with reasonable certainty. It can be written before or after the trust and changed later without a lawyer.

What LB838 Changed In 2026

Three sections were amended and three were added. All six became operative on July 18, 2026, which the revisor prints on each section's own page.

A no-contest clause now has a probable-cause escape. New section 30-3827.02 says a provision in a trust purporting to penalize any interested person for contesting the trust or instituting other proceedings relating to it is unenforceable if probable cause exists for instituting the proceedings. A Nebraska trust can still carry the clause. It stops working against a beneficiary who had a real reason to ask.

A promise not to revoke needs paper. New section 30-3827.01 says a contract to make a trust, or not to revoke one, executed on or after January 1, 1977, can be established only by provisions of a will or trust stating the material provisions of the contract, by an express reference in a will or trust plus extrinsic evidence of the terms, or by a writing signed by the decedent. The last sentence matters to married couples with one shared document: the execution of a joint trust does not create a presumption of a contract not to revoke the trust.

Will construction rules now reach trusts. New section 30-3811.01 applies the rules of construction Nebraska uses for interpreting and disposing of property by will, as appropriate, to interpreting the terms of a trust and disposing of trust property.

The act also refreshed the definitions in section 30-3803 and added the homestead item to the certification of trust in section 30-38,103, both covered below.

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The Revocation Default Flips For A Pre-2005 Trust

Neb. Rev. Stat. § 30-3854(a) is two sentences and both matter. The first: unless the terms of a trust expressly provide that the trust is irrevocable, the settlor may revoke or amend it. The second: this subsection does not apply to a trust created under an instrument executed before January 1, 2005. That date is the day the trust code itself switched on under section 30-38,110(a). A Nebraska trust signed in 1998 does not get the friendly default, so the document has to say for itself that the settlor reserved the power.

Subsection (c) sets the method. Where the trust provides a method, substantial compliance with it works. Where the trust names no method, or names one that is not expressly made exclusive, the settlor may revoke or amend by a later will or codicil that expressly refers to the trust or specifically devises property that would otherwise have passed under it, or by a signed instrument evidencing an intent to amend or revoke, carrying a date or otherwise datable from its contents or the circumstances.

Three more subsections decide who else can pull the lever. Under (e) an agent under a power of attorney may exercise the settlor's powers over revocation, amendment, or distribution only to the extent the terms of the trust or the power expressly authorize it, which is a drafting instruction for a Nebraska power of attorney rather than a footnote. Under (f) a conservator, or a guardian where no conservator was appointed, may do so only with the approval of the supervising court. Under (g) a trustee who does not know the trust has been revoked or amended is not liable for distributions made on the old assumption.

Subsection (h) points at Neb. Rev. Stat. § 30-2333, which revokes a revocable gift, a power of appointment, and a nomination as trustee in favor of a former spouse or a relative of the former spouse on divorce or annulment, and severs a joint tenancy between the former spouses into equal tenancies in common. Remarriage to the same person revives what the section alone revoked.

Funding Is The Half People Skip

Funding means changing title so the trust owns the asset.

Real estate. Sign a deed to the trustee and record it with the register of deeds in the county where the land sits. Two filings ride along with it:

  • Neb. Rev. Stat. § 76-214(1) requires the grantee to file a completed statement prescribed by the Tax Commissioner at the time the deed is presented, and says the register of deeds shall not record the deed without it. The office forwards the statement to the county assessor.
  • Neb. Rev. Stat. § 76-901 taxes the grantor at $3.32 per $1,000 of value or fraction for transfers before January 1, 2032, dropping to $2.32 on and after that date. A gift, a nominal-consideration deed, or a deed with no stated consideration is measured at current market value, not at what changed hands. Every deed is presumed taxable unless the exemption clearly appears on the face of the deed or documentary proof is presented.

The trust exemption looks past the trust. Section 76-902(19) exempts a deed transferring property into a trust if that same property would have been exempt moving directly from the grantor to the beneficiaries under the trust, and it grants the exemption only where the register of deeds receives a signed statement certifying that the transfer falls within one of the listed exemptions and that the evidence supporting it is kept for inspection by the Department of Revenue. Subdivision (5)(a)(i) covers deeds between spouses or between parent and child without actual consideration, which is the route most family trusts take. Subdivision (20) exempts a deed running the other way, from a trustee to a beneficiary of the trust. Work out which exemption applies before you sign, because the certifying statement is what the counter asks for.

Recording cost is statewide. Section 33-109(1) charges $10 for the first page and $6 for each additional page, and section 33-109(2) charges $1.50 per page for a certified copy.

Farmland is its own question. Section 76-1515 says no trust other than a family trust, authorized trust, or testamentary trust may directly or indirectly acquire, obtain, or lease agricultural land in Nebraska, with six exceptions covering security interests, research land, land taken by a trust company or bank as trustee for one of those three trust types, land already held on August 30, 1981, land acquired for immediate nonfarming use, and state property. Section 76-1512 defines the family trust: a majority interest held by, and a majority of the beneficiaries being, people related as spouse, parent, grandparent, or descendants of grandparents and their spouses, with all beneficiaries being natural persons who are not acting as trustee for another trust, or a nonprofit corporation. Section 76-1520(1) adds a reporting duty to the Secretary of State, and it lands on a corporate trustee rather than on a family member serving as trustee. An ordinary family trust clears section 76-1515. A trust that names a business entity or another trust as a beneficiary may not, so raise it with a Nebraska attorney before deeding a quarter section.

Bank and brokerage accounts. Retitle the account into the name of the trust. The bank will ask for proof, and section 30-38,102(a) lets the trustee present a certification of trust instead of the instrument to any person other than a beneficiary. Section 30-38,102(b) requires that certification to be an affidavit signed and acknowledged by all acting trustees, which is why a notary belongs in the signing appointment. Section 30-38,103(a) lists eleven items it may confirm, including the existence and execution date of the trust, the settlor and each acting trustee, the trustee's powers and any restrictions on them, how successor trustees are chosen, revocability and who may revoke, cotrustee signing authority, the trust's taxpayer identifying number, each beneficiary and the relationship to the settlor, the governing jurisdiction, and the form in which title is to be taken. LB838 added the eleventh item in 2026: any information needed to establish a person's ownership of a homestead for purposes of the homestead exemption under sections 77-3501 to 77-3529. Section 30-38,103(b) requires the statement that the trust has not been revoked or amended in a way that makes the certification incorrect and that the signatures are those of all acting trustees.

Read the second half of section 30-38,102(a) before you rely on the document: no person is required to accept and rely solely on a certification of trust in place of a copy of, or excerpts from, the instrument. Nebraska gives the trustee a privacy tool, not a right of admission.

Vehicles and boats. Section 30-2715.01(1) lets an owner name a beneficiary in the certificate of title itself and says a trust may be the beneficiary, with the title reading the owner's name followed in substance by transfer on death to the named trustee. Subsection (2) gives that beneficiary no interest until the owner dies and lets the owner change the designation at any time by applying for a subsequent certificate of title, with no beneficiary consent. That is often simpler than retitling the vehicle into the trust while you are still driving it.

Accounts to leave alone. Retirement plans and life insurance pass by beneficiary designation, and naming a trust changes how the money is paid out and taxed after a death, so ask your plan administrator and a Nebraska attorney before writing the trust onto that form. One Nebraska rule cuts the other way and is worth knowing: section 77-2002(3) says life insurance proceeds receivable by the trustee of an inter vivos or testamentary trust are not subject to inheritance tax, unless the decedent's estate is the beneficiary of the trust.

Registration Is A Choice In Nebraska

The catchline on Neb. Rev. Stat. § 30-3816 still reads "Duty to register trusts", and the operative text is permissive. Subsection (1) says the trustee of a trust whose principal place of administration is in Nebraska may register it in the county court at that place, and defines the principal place of administration, absent a designation in the instrument, as the trustee's usual place of business where the trust records are kept, or the trustee's residence where there is no such place of business. Subsection (5) says no one other than a trustee may register a trust and that registration is not required in order for a court to exercise jurisdiction over a trust, a trustee, or the beneficiaries.

Section 30-3817 makes registration a filed statement: the trustee's name and address, an acknowledgment of the trusteeship, whether the trust is registered elsewhere, and, for a written inter vivos trust, the name of each settlor and the original trustee plus the date of the instrument.

Section 30-3819(a) is the consequence to weigh. By registering, or by accepting the trusteeship of a registered trust, the trustee submits personally to the jurisdiction of the court of registration in any proceeding under section 30-3812 that an interested person starts while the trust stays registered, and subsection (b) subjects the beneficiaries to that court's jurisdiction to the extent of their interests.

The price is set by statute and by schedule. Section 33-126.06 sets the county court fee for registering any trust, testamentary or not, at $22, with $4 of it going to the Nebraska Retirement Fund for Judges. The Nebraska Judicial Branch filing fee schedule effective July 1, 2026 prints what a filer actually pays: $44.00 for registration of any trust, made up of an $18.00 filing fee, a $4.00 docket fee, the $2.00 judges retirement charge under section 24-703, and six one-per-case cost fees adding $20.00. The same schedule charges $24.00 for the appointment of a successor trustee, and $44.00 for a proceeding concerning administration, distribution, or declaration of rights, with a note that a proceeding within an existing trust collects only the filing fee, the judges retirement fee, and the docket fee, for $24.00.

Most people who sign a revocable living trust to stay out of the county court do not register it. A trustee with cotrustees who cannot agree on the principal place of administration has a reason to think again, because section 30-3816(3) sends that disagreement to a section 30-3812 proceeding.

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The Pour-Over Will

Every Nebraska living trust ships with a companion will, and the Uniform Testamentary Additions to Trusts Act (1991) is what makes it work. Neb. Rev. Stat. § 30-3601 names the act and runs it from section 30-3601 to section 30-3604.

Section 30-3602(a) lets a will devise or bequeath property to the trustee of a trust established or to be established, including a funded or unfunded life insurance trust, if the trust is identified in the testator's will and its terms are set out in a written instrument other than a will, executed before, concurrently with, or after the will, or in the will of someone who predeceased the testator. The size or character of the trust property does not matter. The gift is not invalid because the trust is amendable or revocable, or because the trust was amended after the will was signed or after the testator died.

Subsection (b) says that unless the will provides otherwise, the property poured over is not held under a testamentary trust. It becomes part of the trust it was given to and is administered under that instrument, including amendments made before or after the testator's death.

Subsection (c) is the sentence to read against your own document: unless the testator's will provides otherwise, a revocation or termination of the trust before the testator's death causes the devise or bequest to lapse. Nebraska lets the will opt out of that result, and a will that says nothing takes the default. Rewriting or tearing up the trust without touching the will is how a pour-over gift ends up with nothing to catch.

The will still has to be a valid Nebraska will. Section 30-2327 requires a writing signed by the testator, or in the testator's name by another individual in the testator's presence and by the testator's direction, and signed by at least two individuals who each witnessed either the signing or the testator's acknowledgment of the signature or of the will. Section 30-2329 provides for a self-proved will, which spares your witnesses a trip to court, and section 30-2338 recognizes a separate writing identifying a bequest of tangible property. Details sit on Nebraska will requirements.

One thing the pour-over will cannot do is spare the courthouse. Where it is carrying real assets because funding was left unfinished, somebody opens a Nebraska probate case to pour them over. The will backstops the trust. It does not replace the funding.

What Happens After You Die

The trust becomes irrevocable, and three deadlines start running.

One year to contest, or one hundred twenty days if the trustee moves first. Section 30-3856(a) allows a proceeding contesting the validity of a trust that was revocable at the settlor's death within the earlier of one year after the death, or one hundred twenty days after the trustee sent the person a copy of the trust instrument and a notice giving the trust's existence, the trustee's name and address, and the time allowed. Sending that packet starts the shorter clock. Subsection (b) lets the trustee distribute in the meantime without liability unless the trustee knows of a pending contest or a potential contestant gave notice and then filed within sixty days. Subsection (c) makes a beneficiary liable to return the property, or its value plus income and gain if it has been sold. Section 30-3805(b)(11) puts periods of limitation among the rules the terms of a trust cannot displace.

One year for the estate to reach back. Section 30-3850(a)(3) makes the property of a trust that was revocable at the settlor's death subject to the settlor's creditors, the costs of administering the settlor's estate, funeral and disposal expenses, and the statutory allowances to a surviving spouse and children, to the extent the probate estate cannot cover them, and subject to the settlor's right to direct which source pays. A proceeding to assert that liability cannot start unless the personal representative has received a written demand from the surviving spouse, a creditor, a child, or someone acting for a child, and it must be commenced within one year after the death. Subdivision (a)(5) releases the trustee from liability on assets already distributed unless the personal representative gave written notice first that the probate estate cannot pay allowed claims and allowances. That is why a careful Nebraska successor trustee waits before writing checks, and it sits beside the ordinary Nebraska creditor claims timetable.

Sixty days to write to the beneficiaries. Section 30-3878(b)(2) makes a trustee notify the qualified beneficiaries of the acceptance of the trusteeship and of the trustee's name, address, and telephone number within sixty days of accepting. Subdivision (b)(3) gives another sixty days from the date the trustee learns a formerly revocable trust has become irrevocable, whether by the settlor's death or otherwise, to notify the qualified beneficiaries of the trust's existence, the settlor's identity, the right to request a copy of the instrument, and the right to a trustee's report. Subsection (c) then requires a report of trust property, liabilities, receipts, and disbursements at least annually and at termination. Subsection (f) carries a dated carve-out worth checking against an older document: neither sixty-day notice applies to a trustee who accepted the trusteeship before January 1, 2006, to an irrevocable trust created before that date, or to a revocable trust that became irrevocable before it.

The successor trustee's whole job sits on Nebraska trust administration.

What A Nebraska Revocable Trust Does Not Do

It does not change your income tax. Under 26 U.S.C. § 676(a) the grantor is treated as the owner of any portion of a trust where the power to revest title in the grantor is exercisable by the grantor or a nonadverse party. The income stays yours while you live, and the step-up in basis question at your death is answered by federal law rather than by the trust.

It does not stop your creditors. Section 30-3850(a)(1) subjects the property of a revocable trust to the claims of the settlor's creditors during the settlor's lifetime, spendthrift clause or not, and subdivision (a)(3) carries that past death as described above.

It does not avoid Nebraska inheritance tax. Section 77-2002(1) reaches an interest transferred by deed, grant, sale, or gift, in trust or otherwise, that is intended to take effect in possession or enjoyment after the owner's death. Section 77-2004(1)(b) taxes an immediate relative at one percent of the clear market value received above $100,000 per person for decedents dying on or after January 1, 2023, and section 77-2004(3) exempts the surviving spouse and anyone in that class under twenty-two years of age. Where no probate proceeding under chapter 30, article 24 or 25 was ever brought, section 77-2018.02(1) allows an independent proceeding in the county court where the property sits for the sole purpose of determining the tax, and subsection (6) requires notice to the Department of Health and Human Services where the decedent was fifty-five or older or lived in a medical institution. The rates and classes are on Nebraska inheritance tax.

It does not defeat a surviving spouse's elective share. Section 30-2313(a) gives the surviving spouse of a person domiciled in Nebraska a right to elect a share of up to one-half of the augmented estate, and section 30-2314(a)(1)(ii) adds back into that augmented estate property the decedent transferred during the marriage to the surviving spouse, to or for the benefit of anyone other than a bona fide purchaser or that spouse, to the extent the decedent got no adequate and full consideration for it and retained at death a power, alone or with another person, to revoke the transfer or to consume, invade, or dispose of the principal for the decedent's own benefit. Section 30-2314(c)(3) leaves the transfer out only where no petition is filed within nine months of the death. More on Nebraska surviving spouse rights.

It does not clear Nebraska Medicaid estate recovery. Section 68-919(4)(b)(i)(A) counts assets passing to a section 77-2004 or section 77-2005 beneficiary through a revocable trust or similar arrangement that became irrevocable by reason of the recipient's death as part of the estate the Department may recover from, and subdivision (B) names a living trust in the same breath as joint tenancy, a transfer on death deed, and a retained life estate. Deeding the house to a revocable trust does not put it out of reach. Anyone who has received or may need Medicaid long-term care should talk to a Nebraska elder law attorney before retitling a home.

It does not finish the job by itself. Anything you never retitle still passes by your will, by a beneficiary designation, or under Nebraska intestate succession where there is no will.

When A Simpler Tool Is Enough

For a Nebraska family whose main asset is one house, a recorded transfer on death deed usually wins on cost, and the comparison sits on how to avoid probate in Nebraska.

Where the estate is small, no instrument may be needed at all. Section 30-24,125(a)(1) lets a successor collect personal property by affidavit thirty days after the death where the value of all personal property in the estate, wherever located, less liens and encumbrances, does not exceed $100,000 and no personal representative has been appointed or applied for. Section 30-24,129(a)(1) runs a separate affidavit for real property through the register of deeds where the decedent's interest in all Nebraska real property does not exceed $100,000, valued from the assessment rolls for the year of death less real estate taxes and interest due at death. Both are covered on the Nebraska small estate routes.

The trust earns its cost somewhere else. Pick a trust where you own real property in more than one state and want to avoid a second court case, where you want distributions staged over time rather than handed over at once, where privacy matters because a recorded deed and a probate file are both public, where a beneficiary has a disability or a creditor problem that calls for managed money, or where planning for incapacity matters to you as much as planning for death. Nebraska also allows a trust for the care of an animal alive during the settlor's lifetime under section 30-3834, terminating on the death of the last surviving animal, with property beyond what the care requires returning to the settlor or the settlor's successors. That instrument has its own page at Nebraska pet trusts.

A Nebraska Funding Checklist

  1. Check the signing date on an existing trust. Before January 1, 2005 the revocable default in section 30-3854(a) does not apply, so the document has to reserve the power itself.
  2. Confirm remainder beneficiaries exist, so you are not the sole trustee and sole beneficiary. (Section 30-3828(a)(5).)
  3. Sign the certification of trust in front of a notary, because section 30-38,102(b) requires an affidavit acknowledged by all acting trustees.
  4. Deed each parcel to the trustee and record it with the register of deeds in the county where the land sits, budgeting $10 for the first page and $6 per page after that. (Section 33-109(1).)
  5. File the Tax Commissioner's statement with the deed, because section 76-214(1) stops the register of deeds from recording without it.
  6. Work out the documentary stamp tax position before signing, and hand over the signed exemption certification if section 76-902(19) applies. Otherwise budget $3.32 per $1,000 of market value under section 76-901.
  7. Check whether any parcel is agricultural land, and whether your trust meets the section 76-1512 family trust definition that section 76-1515 requires.
  8. Retitle bank and brokerage accounts, presenting a certification of trust rather than the instrument, and expect that section 30-38,102(a) lets the institution ask for more anyway.
  9. Consider a transfer on death title for vehicles and boats instead of retitling them, naming the trustee as beneficiary under section 30-2715.01(1).
  10. Leave retirement plans and life insurance on their beneficiary forms unless an attorney tells you otherwise.
  11. Sign the pour-over will with at least two witnesses, name the trust in it, and read section 30-3602(c) before deciding whether the will should opt out of the lapse rule. (Sections 30-2327 and 30-3602.)
  12. Write the agent's trust powers into your Nebraska power of attorney if anyone will fund or adjust the trust for you later. (Section 30-3854(e).) See a Nebraska power of attorney and a Nebraska advance directive.
  13. Keep a one-page schedule of what is titled to the trust and update it whenever you buy or sell.

When To Call A Nebraska Attorney

Talk to a licensed Nebraska attorney when:

  • Medicaid long-term care is on the table, because section 68-919(4)(b) reaches trust property after death
  • the trust instrument was executed before January 1, 2005 and nobody can say whether the settlor reserved the power to revoke
  • the trust will hold Nebraska agricultural land, which section 76-1515 restricts by trust type
  • you own real property in another state whose recorder may not accept Nebraska trustee titling
  • a blended family means the survivorship default on a deed and the trust point at different people
  • a beneficiary has a disability, a creditor problem, or a substance problem that calls for staged distributions
  • a trust already exists and nobody can say which assets were ever retitled into it
  • you and your spouse are signing one joint trust, where new section 30-3827.01 now says the joint document alone creates no presumption of a contract not to revoke
  • the settlor has died and you are the successor trustee working out the notices, the one-year contest window, and the inheritance tax determination

Confirm anything about a particular property with the register of deeds and the county assessor where it sits, and anything about a filed case with the county court handling it. The rest of the planning toolkit sits on Nebraska estate planning basics, and selling a parcel the trust now owns is covered on selling inherited property in Nebraska.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Nebraska have a uniform trust code?

Yes. Neb. Rev. Stat. § 30-3801 says sections 30-3801 to 30-38,115 may be cited as the Nebraska Uniform Trust Code. The Legislature passed it as Laws 2003, LB 130, and section 30-38,110(a) turned it on for January 1, 2005 and applies it to trusts created before, on, or after that date. Section 30-3805(a) makes the code the default rulebook for a trustee's duties and powers and for a beneficiary's rights, and section 30-3805(b) then lists fifteen rules the terms of a trust cannot displace, including the requirements for creating a trust, the rights of certain creditors to reach trust property, and the periods of limitation for commencing a judicial proceeding. Section 30-3812(b) adds that a Nebraska trust is not subject to continuing judicial supervision unless a court orders it.

Is a Nebraska living trust revocable by default?

Usually, and the exception is dated. Neb. Rev. Stat. § 30-3854(a) lets the settlor revoke or amend unless the terms of the trust expressly provide that it is irrevocable, then adds a second sentence people miss: that subsection does not apply to a trust created under an instrument executed before January 1, 2005. A Nebraska trust signed in 2001 is read under the older law, so pull the document and look for an express reservation of the power to revoke. Section 30-3803(15) defines revocable as revocable by the settlor without the consent of the trustee or a person holding an adverse interest.

Does a Nebraska living trust have to be notarized, witnessed, or registered?

The trust code requires none of the three. Neb. Rev. Stat. § 30-3833 says a trust need not be evidenced by a trust instrument at all, though an oral trust and its terms can be established only by clear and convincing evidence. Registration is optional: section 30-3816(1) says the trustee of a trust whose principal place of administration is in Nebraska may register it in the county court, and section 30-3816(5) says registration is not required in order for a court to exercise jurisdiction over a trust, a trustee, or the beneficiaries. A notary still matters for funding, because section 30-38,102(b) requires a certification of trust to be an affidavit signed and acknowledged by all acting trustees.

How do you put a Nebraska house into a living trust?

Sign a deed to the trustee and record it with the register of deeds in the county where the land sits. Two filings ride along. Neb. Rev. Stat. § 76-214(1) requires the grantee to file a completed statement prescribed by the Tax Commissioner at the time of recording, and says the register of deeds shall not record the deed without it. Neb. Rev. Stat. § 76-901 taxes the grantor at $3.32 per $1,000 of value for transfers before January 1, 2032, measures a gift or nominal-consideration deed at current market value, and presumes every deed taxable unless the exemption appears on the face of the deed or documentary proof is given to the register of deeds. Section 33-109(1) sets the recording fee at $10 for the first page and $6 for each additional page.

Is a deed into a Nebraska trust exempt from documentary stamp tax?

Sometimes, and the test looks past the trust. Neb. Rev. Stat. § 76-902(19) exempts a deed transferring property into a trust if the transfer of that same property would be exempt had it been made directly from the grantor to the beneficiaries of the trust, and grants the exemption only when the register of deeds is presented with a signed statement certifying that the transfer comes within one of the exemptions and that supporting evidence is kept for inspection by the Department of Revenue. Subdivision (5)(a)(i) is the one most family trusts lean on, covering deeds between spouses or between parent and child without actual consideration. Subdivision (20) separately exempts a deed from a trustee to a beneficiary of the trust.

Does a Nebraska bank have to accept a certification of trust?

No, and Nebraska says so in the statute. Neb. Rev. Stat. § 30-38,102(a) lets a trustee present a certification of trust instead of the trust instrument to any person other than a beneficiary, then states that no person is required to accept and rely solely on a certification in lieu of a copy of, or excerpts from, the instrument itself. Section 30-38,103(a) lists eleven items the certification may confirm, and Laws 2026, LB838, section 24 added the eleventh: any information needed to establish a person's ownership of a homestead for purposes of the homestead exemption under sections 77-3501 to 77-3529. Section 30-38,103(b) requires the certification to state that the trust has not been revoked or amended in a way that makes it incorrect and that the signatures are those of all the acting trustees.

Does a Nebraska living trust avoid inheritance tax?

No. Neb. Rev. Stat. § 77-2002(1) taxes an interest transferred by deed, grant, sale, or gift, in trust or otherwise, that is intended to take effect in possession or enjoyment after the owner's death, which is what a revocable living trust does. Section 77-2004(1)(b) then taxes an immediate relative at one percent of the clear market value received above $100,000 per person for decedents dying on or after January 1, 2023, and section 77-2004(3) exempts interests passing to the surviving spouse and to any person in that class under twenty-two years of age. Where the trust means no probate case was ever opened, section 77-2018.02(1) lets an independent proceeding to determine the tax be brought in the county court where the property sits.

How long does someone have to contest a Nebraska living trust?

Neb. Rev. Stat. § 30-3856(a) gives a contestant the earlier of one year after the settlor's death or one hundred twenty days after the trustee sent that person a copy of the trust instrument along with notice of the trust's existence, the trustee's name and address, and the time allowed. Sending that packet starts the shorter clock. Subsection (b) lets the trustee distribute in the meantime without liability unless the trustee knows of a pending contest or a potential contestant gave notice and then filed within sixty days, and subsection (c) makes a beneficiary liable to return property if the trust is later held invalid. Section 30-3805(b)(11) puts periods of limitation among the rules the terms of a trust cannot override.

Can a Nebraska living trust hold farmland?

A family trust can. Neb. Rev. Stat. § 76-1515 says no trust other than a family trust, authorized trust, or testamentary trust shall directly or indirectly acquire, obtain, or lease agricultural land in Nebraska, subject to six listed exceptions. Section 76-1512 defines a family trust as one in which a majority interest is held by, and a majority of the beneficiaries are, people related as spouse, parent, grandparent, lineal descendants of grandparents or their spouses, and in which all the beneficiaries are natural persons who are not themselves acting as trustee for another trust, or a nonprofit corporation. Section 76-1520(1) puts a separate reporting duty on a corporate trustee holding an interest in real estate used for farming or ranching, who reports it to the Secretary of State.

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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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