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Small Estate Affidavit in Nebraska
Support GuideNebraska23 min read

Small Estate Affidavit in Nebraska

Nebraska runs three simplified routes, not one limit. Two separate $100,000 affidavits move personal property and land, and a third sets no dollar figure.

By Settled Editorial

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Many estates can avoid probate entirely. Assets with beneficiary designations, joint accounts, and trust assets may pass automatically without court involvement.

Nebraska gives a family three ways around a full probate, and only two of them are affidavits. Neb. Rev. Stat. § 30-24,125 moves personal property on a sworn affidavit handed to whoever holds it. Neb. Rev. Stat. § 30-24,129 moves Nebraska land on a separate affidavit recorded with the register of deeds. Neb. Rev. Stat. § 30-24,127 closes an already opened estate early and carries no dollar figure at all.

Almost every page that answers this question prints one number and calls it the Nebraska small estate threshold. That framing tells a family with a modest house and a modest bank balance to measure one pile when the code measures two. This page describes how the sections read rather than how they apply to one estate, so confirm your own figures with the county court clerk where the decedent lived, or with a licensed Nebraska attorney, before acting on any of it.

Three Routes, Two Dollar Figures, One That Has None

Here is the whole system in one view. Read the last column first, because the filing office is what tells you which instrument you are holding.

SectionWhat it movesThe testWhere it goes
§ 30-24,125Debts, tangible personal property, stock, instruments evidencing a debt or chose in actionAll personal property in the estate, wherever located, less liens and encumbrances, $100,000 or lessTo the person or entity holding the property. No court case
§ 30-24,129The decedent's interest in Nebraska real propertyThat interest in all Nebraska real property, valued off the assessment rolls for the year of death less real estate taxes and interest due at death, $100,000 or lessRegister of deeds, in every county where the land sits
§ 30-24,127Nothing on its own. It ends an open administration earlyEntire estate less liens and encumbrances does not exceed the allowances plus administration costs plus funeral and last illness expenses. No dollar figureCounty court, by a closing statement under § 30-24,128

The two $100,000 figures are concurrent, not a ladder. They sit in different sections, measure different classes of property, use different valuation bases, and are delivered to different offices. An estate can clear one and fail the other, and an estate that clears both signs two affidavits and files them in two places.

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The $100,000 for Personal Property, and What It Actually Measures

Section 30-24,125(a) makes anyone who owes the decedent money, or holds tangible personal property or an instrument evidencing a debt, obligation, stock or chose in action, pay or deliver it to a claiming successor who presents an affidavit stating six things.

The affidavit must stateSection
The value of all of the personal property in the decedent's estate, wherever located, less liens and encumbrances, does not exceed one hundred thousand dollars30-24,125(a)(1)
Thirty days have elapsed since the death, shown by a certified or authenticated copy of the death certificate, or by an abstract of death under § 71-601.01 where the certificate is delayed30-24,125(a)(2)
The claiming successor's relationship to the decedent, or the basis of the claim where there is no relationship30-24,125(a)(3)
A sworn or affirmed statement that everything in the affidavit is true and material, acknowledging the § 28-915 perjury penalties30-24,125(a)(4)
No application or petition for appointment of a personal representative is pending or has been granted in any jurisdiction30-24,125(a)(5)
The claiming successor is entitled to payment or delivery of the property30-24,125(a)(6)

Two of those six do more work than they look like they do. Subsection (a)(1) measures personal property wherever located, not just property in Nebraska, so an out of state brokerage account counts toward the ceiling. Subsection (a)(5) reaches any jurisdiction, so an administration opened in another state closes this route in Nebraska.

Nothing here requires the estate to be intestate. Section 30-2209(46) defines successors as those persons, other than creditors, who are entitled to property of a decedent under his or her will or the Nebraska Probate Code. A named beneficiary under a will signs this affidavit on the same terms as an intestate heir.

The section also does three specific jobs that are easy to miss.

  • Securities re-register. Under subsection (b), a transfer agent has to change the registered ownership on the corporation's books from the decedent to the successor on presentation of the affidavit.
  • Checks made out to the estate become negotiable. Subsection (c) lets the successor endorse or negotiate a check, draft or other negotiable instrument payable to the decedent or the decedent's estate. The bank that takes it for deposit is discharged from all claims for the amount accepted, and the section says that discharge holds despite UCC §§ 3-403, 3-417 and 3-420.
  • Vehicles need a second affidavit. Subsection (d)(1) requires a person seeking transfer of a certificate of title to a motor vehicle, motorboat, all-terrain vehicle, utility-type vehicle or minibike to give the Department of Motor Vehicles its own affidavit showing the section applies. Subsection (d)(2), added by Laws 2025, LB85, waives the no-personal-representative requirement once ten years have passed since the estate closed, on proof of closing plus a certified authenticated death certificate.

The holder who pays is protected. Section 30-24,126 discharges and releases the payer to the same extent as if it had dealt with a personal representative, and relieves it of any duty to see to the application of the property or to inquire into the truth of any statement in the affidavit. A holder who refuses can be compelled in a proceeding brought by the persons entitled. The successor who receives stays answerable to any personal representative later appointed, and to anyone with a superior right.

The Second $100,000 Is for Land, and It Is Measured Off the Assessment Rolls

Section 30-24,129 is the route most summaries of Nebraska law leave out. Thirty days after the death, a successor to the decedent's interest in Nebraska real property files an affidavit describing the property and the decedent's interest with the register of deeds office of a county where the land sits. Every person claiming as a successor signs it, or a party legally acting on their behalf, and the recorded affidavit is prima facie evidence of the facts it states.

The valuation rule is the part to slow down on. Subsection (a)(1) caps the decedent's interest in all Nebraska real property at $100,000, and then says how to reach that figure: the value shown on the assessment rolls for the year in which the decedent died, less real estate taxes and interest on them if any is due at the time of death. That is county assessed value, not a listing price and not an appraisal. A house a realtor would market at $130,000 can sit well inside the cap on the rolls, and the reverse happens too.

Eight statements go into the affidavit under subsection (a): the $100,000 assessed-value figure, the thirty days elapsed with a certified or authenticated death certificate attached, that no application or petition for a personal representative is pending or granted in Nebraska, the basis of entitlement (homestead allowance, exempt property allowance or family allowance, intestate succession, or devise under the will with a copy of the will attached), that the successor investigated and could not determine any subsequent will, that no other person has a right to the decedent's interest, the successor's relationship plus the value of the entire estate subject to probate, and the § 28-915 perjury acknowledgment.

Two mechanical points follow from that.

  • Record it in every county. Subsection (b) requires the recorded affidavit and the certified or authenticated death certificate to be recorded again in any other Nebraska county where affected real property sits. A quarter section straddling a county line is two recordings.
  • The recording costs very little. Section 33-109(1) sets the register of deeds fee at ten dollars for the first page and six dollars for each additional page, with certified copies at one dollar and fifty cents per page.

Section 30-24,130 then gives the successor the protection of a distributee who received a deed of distribution under § 30-24,106, and gives a later purchaser or lender the protection of § 30-24,108. It does not disturb any mortgage, pledge or other lien on the described property.

Note that subsection (a)(3) is narrower than its personal property twin. It asks only whether a personal representative is pending or granted in the State of Nebraska, where § 30-24,125(a)(5) reaches any jurisdiction.

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What Happens When an Estate Clears Both Caps

Take a Nebraska resident who dies owning a home carried on the county rolls at $90,000 with $1,200 of unpaid real estate taxes, plus $95,000 across a checking account and a credit union share account, and nothing else.

The land measures $88,800 after the taxes come off, under the § 30-24,129 cap. The personal property measures $95,000, under the § 30-24,125 cap. Both routes are open, and the family signs two affidavits: one recorded at the register of deeds in the county where the house sits, one presented to the bank and the credit union. No court case opens either way.

Now move $30,000 of that cash into a brokerage account in another state. The personal property figure is still $95,000, because subsection (a)(1) counts personal property wherever located, so nothing changes. Move the house to $115,000 on the rolls instead, and the land route closes while the cash route stays open. The two caps fail independently, which is why treating them as one threshold produces the wrong answer in both directions.

The Third Route Has No Dollar Figure at All

Section 30-24,127 is not an affidavit and it does not avoid appointment. It shortens an administration that is already open. If the inventory and appraisal show the value of the entire estate, less liens and encumbrances, does not exceed homestead allowance, exempt property, family allowance, costs and expenses of administration, reasonable funeral expenses, and reasonable and necessary medical and hospital expenses of the last illness, the personal representative may disburse and distribute immediately without giving notice to creditors and file a closing statement.

No page can compute that test for you, and this one will not pretend to. Three of the six items on the comparison list are amounts a court or a personal representative sets after looking at the estate, and two more are bills that arrive on their own schedule. What a page can do is give you the four allowance figures the statutes fix.

AllowanceSectionDeath on or after January 1, 2011 and before January 1, 2027Death on or after January 1, 2027
Homestead allowance30-2322$20,000$25,000
Exempt property30-2323(1)$12,500$17,500
Family allowance, lump sum determined by the personal representative30-2325$20,000$25,000
Family allowance, periodic installments for one year30-2325$1,666.67 per month$2,083.33 per month

Laws 2026, LB838, sections 16 through 18 wrote the January 2027 column. It is not operative yet, and a death today still takes the middle column. The Nebraska homestead and family allowances page works through who selects what, and in what order the three claims abate.

Section 30-24,128 handles the closing. Unless the court has ordered otherwise, and unless the administration is supervised, the personal representative files a verified statement that the entire estate less liens and encumbrances did not exceed that list, that the estate has been fully administered by disbursement and distribution, and that a copy of the closing statement went to all distributees and to every creditor or claimant the representative knows of whose claim is neither paid nor barred, with a full written account to the distributees affected. If no action or proceeding involving the personal representative is pending one year after the closing statement is filed, the appointment terminates.

Choosing this route means giving up the creditor notice that bars claims, so it suits an estate whose debts are already known and small. Opening a full administration instead is covered on the Nebraska probate process page.

The Court Publishes Both Affidavit Forms, and Both Say a Little More Than the Statute

The Nebraska Judicial Branch publishes the two forms on its master forms list. Read the form, not the page that links it: the self-help page for the personal property affidavit links the real property form as well.

  • CC 15:40 Rev. 07/2022, Affidavit for Transfer of Personal Property without Probate, cites Neb. Rev. Stat. § 30-24,125 and prints the ceiling as $100,000.00 or less.
  • CC 15:41 Rev. 10/2025, Affidavit for Transfer of Real Property without Probate, cites Neb. Rev. Stat. § 30-24,129, runs two pages, and carries a checkbox for each of the three grounds of entitlement.

Two divergences between form and statute are worth catching before you sign.

CC 15:40 asks you to swear to a broader figure than § 30-24,125 requires. Item 3 on the form reads that the value of the entire estate of the deceased, less liens and encumbrances, is $100,000.00 or less. The statute measures the value of all of the personal property in the decedent's estate. A family whose house sits outside the personal property measure is being asked to certify something the section never asked for, and a family with a $90,000 house and $40,000 of cash cannot sign item 3 as written while still qualifying under the statute. Raise that with the county court clerk or a Nebraska attorney rather than crossing it out.

CC 15:40 has not caught up to the 2025 amendment. Item 2 requires a certified or authenticated copy of the death certificate attached, with no mention of the abstract of death that Laws 2025, LB85 added to § 30-24,125(a)(2). The form revision predates the act.

CC 15:41 asks about sole ownership. Item 2 reads that the deceased is the sole owner of the described real property, where the statute speaks of the decedent's interest in real property. Item 4 also asks for the value of the entire estate, real plus personal, which tracks § 30-24,129(a)(7). That figure is disclosed, not capped.

Both forms carry a notary block and both warn in capital letters not to sign until a notary is present. CC 15:41 requires the signature of every person claiming as a successor.

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Neither Affidavit Clears the Inheritance Tax

This is the step that surprises Nebraska families, and it is the reason a route advertised as avoiding court often ends up in county court anyway.

Nebraska charges an inheritance tax rather than an estate tax, and the county collects it. Section 77-2003 makes the tax payable to the treasurer of the proper county, makes heirs, legatees, devisees, personal representatives, other recipients and trustees liable until it is paid, and makes it a lien on the real property subject to it until paid or terminated under § 77-2037. Property passing to the surviving spouse carries no lien.

Recording a § 30-24,129 affidavit moves title. It does not touch that lien. Section 77-2037 ends the lien on the first of three events: ten years from the date of death with no determination made, payment of the amount the county court finally determines, or a release or discharge under § 77-2039. A title company asked to insure a sale five years later will look for one of those three, and an affidavit is none of them.

Section 77-2018.02 is the answer where no probate was opened. In the absence of any proceeding under Chapter 30, article 24 or 25, an independent proceeding for the sole purpose of determining the tax may be brought in the county court of the county where the property sits. Where it appears no tax could result, the court orders the county attorney to show cause, and on the county attorney's failure to show cause the petitioner gets a determination of no tax due and the potential lien is extinguished, with no published notice. Section 33-126.03 sets the county court's fee for an inheritance tax determination at twenty-two dollars, and does not charge it where a formal § 33-125(1)(b) fee was already imposed.

Most small estates owe nothing. For a death on or after January 1, 2023, § 77-2004 taxes immediate relatives at one percent of the clear market value received by each person in excess of one hundred thousand dollars, exempts the surviving spouse entirely, exempts any beneficiary under twenty-two years of age, and exempts the homestead allowance, exempt property and family maintenance allowance. Owing zero and having that recorded are different things, and the lien answers to the second. Rates for the remote and unrelated classes sit on the Nebraska inheritance tax page.

Which Nebraska Figures Are Stale, and What Actually Changed

Both $100,000 caps were $50,000 within living memory, and they moved two years apart in two unrelated bills.

  • Laws 2022, LB1124, section 1 raised § 30-24,125 from fifty thousand to one hundred thousand dollars. The act's own title says it is a bill to change a personal property value threshold for collection of personal property by affidavit for small estates.
  • Laws 2024, LB1195, section 4 raised § 30-24,129 from fifty thousand to one hundred thousand dollars, in an act whose title covers provisions of the Nebraska Probate Code relating to bonds, small estate affidavits, and certain payments and transfers to minors.
  • Laws 2025, LB85, section 1 is the most recent amendment to § 30-24,125 and left the dollar figure alone. It added the abstract of death alternative in subsection (a)(2) and the ten year closed estate waiver in subsection (d)(2). A page that credits LB85 with the current ceiling has read the amendment chain rather than the act.

So a source printing $50,000 for personal property is stale by 2022, and a source printing $50,000 for real property is stale by 2024. A source that gives one figure for both was never right.

Deadlines That Do and Do Not Run

Neither affidavit has an expiry. Sections 30-24,125 and 30-24,129 each set a thirty day wait after the death and then say nothing about an outside limit, so a family that finds an untitled account four years later still has the route.

The summary route is different, because it needs an appointment first. Section 30-2408 bars any informal probate or appointment proceeding, and any formal testacy or appointment proceeding, more than three years after the death, with four narrow exceptions. One of them lets a proceeding start later where nothing has happened in the three year window, and then bars every claim except expenses of administration. Once that door closes, § 30-24,127 closes with it.

A recorded transfer-on-death deed sidesteps all of this for land, and it has to be recorded within thirty days after execution and before the transferor's death to work. That mechanism is covered on the Nebraska transfer-on-death deed page. The thresholds and forms as they will render once the state template is live sit at Nebraska small estate affidavit.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the small estate limit in Nebraska?

There is no single limit. Nebraska prints $100,000 twice, in two different sections, and neither figure covers the other. Section 30-24,125 opens a personal property affidavit when all of the personal property in the estate, wherever located, less liens and encumbrances, does not exceed $100,000. Section 30-24,129 opens a separate real property affidavit when the decedent's interest in all Nebraska real property does not exceed $100,000, measured off the county assessment rolls rather than market value. A third route, section 30-24,127, carries no dollar figure at all.

Does a Nebraska small estate affidavit cover real estate?

The personal property affidavit does not. Section 30-24,125 reaches debts, tangible personal property, stock, and instruments evidencing a debt or a chose in action. Nebraska land moves under a different section. Section 30-24,129 lets a successor record an affidavit with the register of deeds in each county where the land sits, so long as the decedent's interest in all Nebraska real property is $100,000 or less on the assessment rolls for the year of death, less real estate taxes and interest due at death.

How long do you have to wait to use a Nebraska small estate affidavit?

Thirty days after the death, for both affidavits. Sections 30-24,125(a)(2) and 30-24,129(a)(2) each require thirty days to have elapsed, shown by a certified or authenticated copy of the death certificate attached to the affidavit. Since Laws 2025, LB85, section 1, the personal property affidavit also accepts an abstract of death as defined in section 71-601.01 where a certified death certificate is delayed. Neither section sets an outside deadline.

Can you use a Nebraska small estate affidavit if there is a will?

Yes. Section 30-2209(46) defines successors as those persons, other than creditors, who are entitled to property of a decedent under his or her will or the Nebraska Probate Code, so a will does not close either route. Section 30-24,129(a)(4) says so directly for land: a claiming successor may take by devise under the will, and a copy of the will has to be attached to the affidavit. What does close both routes is an appointed personal representative, or a pending application or petition for one.

Where do you file a Nebraska small estate affidavit?

It depends which one. The personal property affidavit under section 30-24,125 is presented to whoever holds the property, such as a bank, an employer, a transfer agent, or the county treasurer handling a vehicle title. No court case opens and no filing fee is charged. The real property affidavit under section 30-24,129 is filed with the register of deeds office in each county where the land sits, and section 33-109 sets that recording fee at $10 for the first page and $6 for each additional page.

What is the Nebraska summary administrative procedure?

It is the third route, and section 30-24,127 attaches no dollar figure to it. The test compares the whole estate against a list: if the inventory and appraisal show the entire estate less liens and encumbrances does not exceed homestead allowance, exempt property, family allowance, costs and expenses of administration, reasonable funeral expenses, and reasonable and necessary medical and hospital expenses of the last illness, the personal representative may distribute without giving notice to creditors and close under section 30-24,128. It needs an appointed personal representative and an inventory, so it is not an affidavit route.

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This page describes Nebraska law broadly rather than advising on one estate. Confirm every date, dollar figure and assessed value with the county court clerk or the register of deeds in the county where the decedent lived, or with a licensed Nebraska attorney, before you act on it.

Sources:

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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