Nebraska

Nebraska estates are heard in the County Court of the county where the deceased lived —
Nebraska's County Courts are its probate courts. Nebraska has adopted the Uniform Probate Code,
so the routes will look familiar: informal proceedings on the paperwork through the registrar,
formal proceedings before a judge where something is disputed, and unsupervised
administration by default once appointed.

The inheritance tax is levied by the county

Nebraska is the only state in the country whose inheritance tax is a county tax. It is
determined by the County Court's order and paid to the County Treasurer of the county where
the estate is administered, not to the state.

Rates were cut significantly by legislation effective 1 January 2023:

A surviving spouse is fully exempt, and — unusually — so is any beneficiary under the age of
22, whatever their relationship. Confirm current rates and thresholds with the county, since
these figures have moved recently and may again.

The personal representative reports to the county

The representative must file a report with the County Treasurer identifying the beneficiaries in
each class and the tax paid. Build that into the timetable; the estate will not close cleanly
without it.

No estate tax

Nebraska has no separate estate tax beyond the county inheritance tax.

A Nebraska will must be in writing, signed by the testator (or by another in the
testator's conscious presence and at their direction), and signed by at least two witnesses
who witnessed either the signing or the testator's acknowledgement of it. The testator must be
18 or older and of sound mind.

Holographic wills are valid

Nebraska follows the Uniform Probate Code standard: a will is valid whether or not witnessed
if the signature and the material portions of the document are in the testator's own
handwriting. The rest may be printed, so a pre-printed form with the gifts written in by hand
can qualify.

It is valid, and it is still a stopgap. A handwritten will does not name an alternate
representative, rarely disposes of the residue properly, and does nothing at all about the
inheritance tax.

Draft around the county inheritance tax

This is where a Nebraska will earns its fee. Close relatives now take $100,000 each free of
tax and pay only 1% above that — generous, and easy to plan around. But aunts, uncles,
nieces and nephews pay 11%, and anyone else 15%, from a much lower threshold.

Two consequences worth acting on:

• A childless person leaving everything to nieces and nephews is arranging an 11% bill. Whether
  the tax comes out of those gifts or out of the residue should be stated expressly in the will.
• Anyone under 22 is fully exempt. For a grandparent deciding between an adult child and a
  grandchild, that is a real difference, and it is unusual enough that most people have never
  heard of it.

Also

• Name an alternate personal representative and waive bond.
• Attach a self-proving affidavit before a notary.
• A surviving spouse has an elective share whatever the will says.
• Review after a marriage, divorce, birth or a move to Nebraska.

Yes. A Nebraska personal representative is entitled to reasonable compensation for
services performed. Nebraska prescribes no percentage.

What "reasonable" turns on

The size and nature of the estate, the time actually spent, the complexity and difficulty of the
work, the skill it required, the responsibility assumed, and the results achieved.

Records decide it

With no schedule to point at, contemporaneous time records are the argument. Keep dated
entries of what was done and how long it took, from the first week.

Unsupervised means unreviewed, not approved

Under Nebraska's default unsupervised administration nobody examines the fee as you take it. Any
interested person may petition the County Court afterwards, and the burden of showing the amount
was reasonable sits with the representative. Agree it in writing with the beneficiaries before
taking it.

If the will fixes the figure

A will provision governs. Under the UPC framework the representative may also renounce the will's
provision before qualifying and take reasonable compensation instead.

The inheritance tax angle, which is unusually favourable here

Compensation is taxable income to the representative but a deductible administration
expense for the Nebraska inheritance tax.

Where the representative is a close relative — already exempt on the first $100,000 and taxed
at only 1% above it — taking a fee converts a lightly taxed inheritance into fully taxable income
and is usually a poor trade. Where the representative is a remote relative or unrelated,
facing 11% or 15%, the arithmetic can genuinely favour taking the fee, because the deduction
reduces the tax on everyone's shares. Which case applies is worth an accountant's five minutes.

A Nebraska personal representative is reimbursed from the estate for the reasonable expenses
of administration, separately from compensation. Most are also deductible against the county
inheritance tax, so recording them carefully has a cash value where a Class 2 or Class 3
beneficiary is involved.

Normally claimable

• Funeral, burial or cremation, the headstone, and a reasonable reception.
• County Court filing fees, certified letters, certified death certificates, and publication of
  the notice to creditors.
• Attorney's fees, and accountant's fees for the final Form 1040, any Form 1041, and the
  inheritance tax report to the County Treasurer.
• Appraisals of real property, farmland, grain in storage, livestock, centre-pivot irrigation and
  machinery, vehicles, firearms and collections.
• On a farm, the genuine costs of carrying the operation through to harvest where that serves
  the estate — seed, fertiliser, fuel, custom work, drying and storage. Walking away from a
  growing crop is usually the worse decision.
• Carrying costs on estate property until sale: insurance, property tax, utilities, security,
  maintenance, lawn care and snow removal.
• Winterising a property so an empty house survives a Nebraska January, and hail and storm
  damage mitigation.
• Cleaning, clearing, storing, moving and shipping contents.
• Travel on estate business at a reasonable rate — distances here are long.
• Bond premiums where bond was not waived.

Normally not claimable

• The representative's lost wages, meals near home, or personal spending.
• Costs run up for one beneficiary's convenience rather than the estate's.
• Improvements beyond preparing a property for sale as it stands.
• Anything without a receipt.

The rule that decides it

Open an estate bank account and run everything through it. Every documented expense reduces
the inheritance tax base — worth up to 15% depending on who inherits.

Most Nebraska estates are administered by a family member with a lawyer retained for the County
Court filings. A bank trust department or an attorney serving as personal representative earns
its cost in specific cases — though in Nebraska the more useful addition is often a farm manager
rather than a full corporate fiduciary.

Consider a professional when

• The estate includes a working farm or ranch. This is the Nebraska case, and it has two
  halves: the land, to be divided between farming and non-farming children, and the operation,
  which has a crop in the ground or cattle to feed and cannot pause while the family decides. A
  farm management company alongside a family representative is frequently the right structure.
• Beneficiaries fall into the 11% or 15% inheritance tax classes and the tax has to be planned,
  apportioned and reported to the County Treasurer correctly.
• The estate holds irrigated land with water rights, an operating business, or rental property.
• There is conflict among the beneficiaries, or a will contest looks likely.
• A beneficiary is a minor or incapacitated, so a trust runs for years — though note that a
  beneficiary under 22 is inheritance-tax exempt, which sometimes simplifies matters.
• The named representative lives out of state, common where children have left, and cannot
  attend a county courthouse or walk the ground.

What it costs

Corporate fiduciaries charge a negotiated percentage with a minimum annual fee. Farm managers
charge a percentage of farm income — a different and often better-targeted arrangement. Attorneys
bill hourly. Ask for all of it in writing.

Middle ground

Appoint a family member, waive bond, and let them retain a Nebraska probate attorney and, where
there is land, a farm manager, both at the estate's expense.

A named representative who does not want the job can decline before appointment.