Nebraska Estate Accounting: A Representative's Guide

Nebraska administers decedents' estates under Chapter 30, article 24 of the Nebraska Revised Statutes, through the county court, which has exclusive original jurisdiction over probate proceedings (Neb. Rev. Stat. 30-2211). The later sections in this article carry a comma in their number, not a subsection mark: 30-24,117 is one section number, written exactly that way. Nebraska publishes no statewide probate form for a decedent's estate inventory or account. There is no form number for either document in this guide, and none should ever be printed on one.

The first document is the inventory, required by Neb. Rev. Stat. 30-2467. Within three months after appointment, a personal representative who is not a special administrator, and who has not taken over from an earlier representative who already did it, prepares one list of the property the decedent owned at death, with reasonable detail, each item's fair market value as of the date of death, and the type and amount of any encumbrance on it. Nebraska requires both steps the statute names: the original is filed with the court, and a copy goes to any interested person who requests it. Nebraska sits on the mandatory side of a split among Uniform Probate Code states. Utah, New Mexico, Idaho and Hawaii let a personal representative file an inventory or simply hold it; Nebraska's personal representative files it.

The second document is the closing statement under Neb. Rev. Stat. 30-24,117, a verified statement the personal representative may file once the estate is ready to close. It recites that notice to creditors was published and more than four months have passed since the first publication; that the estate has been fully administered and distributed, and, if any claim remains undischarged, either that it was distributed subject to possible liability with the agreement of the distributees or what other arrangements have been made to accommodate that claim; and that copies of the statement and a full written account have gone to the distributees and to every claimant whose claim is neither paid nor barred. Nebraska's statute sets no content or format for that account. It only requires that one exists and reaches the distributees.

The inventory is due within three months after the personal representative's appointment, not three months after death (Neb. Rev. Stat. 30-2467).

Nebraska sets no percentage schedule. Neb. Rev. Stat. 30-2480 entitles a personal representative to reasonable compensation for their services, with no tiers and no rate named anywhere in the statute. Neb. Rev. Stat. 30-2482 lets the court review the reasonableness of that compensation, and of compensation paid to anyone the personal representative employed, on a filed motion.

So a Nebraska fee is a figure you support with the record of your work, not one you look up in a table. ExecutorLedger never computes a Nebraska commission from a percentage, since no Nebraska statute sets one. Where the estate's own records show compensation already paid, that figure is what the closing account reports, and nothing on the page claims a court has allowed or will allow it.

The closing statement under Neb. Rev. Stat. 30-24,117 is a verified filing, made no earlier than five months after the personal representative's original appointment. It states three things, in the statute's own order: that notice to creditors was published and the first publication occurred more than four months before the date of the statement; that the personal representative has fully administered the estate, paying, settling or otherwise disposing of every claim that was presented, the expenses of administration and the death taxes, except anything the statement itself excepts, and distributing the assets to the persons entitled, saying for any claim that remains undischarged either that the estate was distributed subject to possible liability with the distributees' agreement or what other arrangements were made for it; and that copies went to the distributees and to any claimant whose claim is neither paid nor barred, along with a full account in writing of the administration.

Neb. Rev. Stat. 30-24,117(b) starts a one-year clock once the statement is filed. If no proceeding involving the personal representative is pending in the court when that year is up, the appointment terminates on its own, with no order needed.

• Get the county inheritance tax determined and paid first. File the determination proceeding in county court within 12 months of death, because interest and penalties run after that and the estate can't realistically wrap up until the tax is resolved.
• After the 2-month claims period runs, pay or otherwise resolve every presented claim, the administration expenses, and all death taxes.
• Send every distributee a full written account of your administration, and collect signed receipts as you hand out property.
• Close informally by filing a verified closing statement with the county court under §30-24,117. This is allowed no earlier than 5 months after your appointment and once first publication is more than 4 months old; if nothing is pending a year after filing, your appointment ends automatically.
• If you want an actual court order discharging you, or anyone disputes the accounting, petition the county court instead for an order of complete settlement under §30-24,115.

Nebraska county courts have exclusive original jurisdiction over decedents' estates (Neb. Rev. Stat. §24-517(1)). There is no separate surrogate, register of wills, or orphans' court. Nebraska follows the UPC informal-closing pattern (verified/sworn statement, UPC §3-1003 = §30-24,117).

Nebraska names no classes for the inventory, unlike states that sort property into lettered or numbered schedules. Real property sits on the same single list as everything else. Any label ExecutorLedger prints beside an item is this product's own description, never a category the statute asks for. The encumbrance the statute asks for, the type and amount of any lien or charge against an item, is its own datum, printed as a ruled line for you to fill in. It is never netted against the value, because Neb. Rev. Stat. 30-2467 asks for the item's value and its encumbrance separately, not a combined figure.

Nebraska does publish one mandatory inventory form, CC 16:2.9, but it is a guardianship and conservatorship form, captioned for a ward or a protected person, not a decedent's estate. It does not apply here, and a personal representative who finds it online should not use it. Appraisers are optional under Neb. Rev. Stat. 30-2468. A supplementary inventory under Neb. Rev. Stat. 30-2469 is its own instrument with its own total, for property found later or a value that needs correcting. It never joins the original inventory's total.

Neb. Rev. Stat. 30-2219 deems every document filed with the county court under the probate code, including this inventory, to already include an oath, affirmation or statement that its representations are true so far as the person filing it knows or is informed. Willfully falsifying one is perjury under Neb. Rev. Stat. 28-915. Neither document carries a notary jurat, and Nebraska prescribes no sentence of the kind some other states require a signer to write out. The closing statement's own word, verified, is what that deemed oath supplies. Practice still varies by county, so confirm with your own county court whether it wants a notarized signature anyway; the statute does not forbid one.

Nebraska's statute says nothing about what the closing account has to contain, not a schedule, not a column, not a heading. The schedules ExecutorLedger prints are this product's own presentation of the estate's records, in the same charge-and-discharge shape it uses for Utah, Nevada, New Mexico and California, whose statutes are equally silent. They are not a format Nebraska requires, and the printed page says so.

Recording is free for as long as the estate takes: every receipt and disbursement with its date and description, distributions per beneficiary, and a balance that checks itself as you go. ExecutorLedger builds Nebraska-style documents from those records, an inventory in the statute's own single, undifferentiated list and a closing statement with its full account, ready to transcribe or attach when you send a copy to an interested person or file with your court. Neither is a court form, and your attorney should review them before anything is signed or filed. Every document previews free with your real numbers, and $149 (one-time payment) per estate lifts the watermark. Usually less than one attorney hour, and typically reimbursable by the estate.