Title 14, Trusts, Estates and Protective Proceedings

A. A person who is generally competent to be a witness may act as a witness to a will. B. For any will executed on or after October 1, 2019, unless the will is made self-proved as prescribed in section 14-2504 or 14-2519, a person may not act as a witness to a will if that person…

A. A paper will is valid if it is executed in compliance with section 14-2502. An electronic will is valid if it is executed in compliance with section 14-2518. B. Notwithstanding subsection A of this section, a paper will or an electronic will is valid if its execution complies …

A. A testator may revoke a will in whole or in part: 1. By executing a subsequent will that revokes the previous will or part expressly or by inconsistency. 2. By performing a revocatory act on the will if the testator performs the act with this intent or if another person perfor…

Except as provided in sections 14-2803 and 14-2804, a change of circumstances does not revoke a will or any part of it.

A. If a testator revokes a subsequent will that wholly revoked a previous will under section 14-2507, subsection A, paragraph 2, the previous will remains revoked unless it is revived. The previous will is revived if it is evident from the circumstances of the revocation of the s…

A testator may incorporate a written document into the testator's will by reference if the following requirements are met: 1. The document exists at the time the testator executes the will. 2. The will's language manifests the testator's intent to incorporate this document. 3. Th…

A. A will may validly devise property to the trustee of a trust established or to be established: 1. During the testator's lifetime by the testator alone, by the testator and some other person or by some other person, including a funded or unfunded life insurance trust, even if t…

A will may dispose of property by reference to acts, such as the execution or revocation of another person's will, that have significance apart from their effect on the dispositions made by the will whether they occur before or after the execution of the will or before or after t…

A. Notwithstanding section 14-2503 relating to holographic wills, a will may refer to a written statement or list to dispose of items of tangible personal property other than money and not otherwise specifically disposed of by the will. B. To be admissible under this section as e…

A. After December 31, 1994, a person may enter into a contract to make a will or devise or not to revoke a will or devise or to die intestate only by: 1. Provisions of a will that state the material provisions of the contract. 2. An express reference in a will to a contract and e…

A. After the death of a testator and on request of an interested person, a person having custody of a will of the testator shall deliver it with reasonable promptness to a person able to secure its probate or, if none is known, to an appropriate court. B. A person who wilfully fa…

A provision in a will purporting to penalize an interested person for contesting the will or instituting other proceedings or actions relating to the estate is unenforceable if probable cause exists for the contest, proceedings or actions.

A. An electronic will must meet all of the following requirements: 1. Be created and maintained in an electronic record that is readable as text at the time of signing. 2. Contain the electronic signature of the testator or the testator's electronic signature made by some other i…

A. In addition to the requirements of section 14-2504, to be self-proved, an electronic will must meet all of the following requirements: 1. Contain the electronic signature and electronic seal of a notary public placed on the will in accordance with applicable law. 2. Designate …

A qualified custodian of an electronic will: 1. May not be related to the testator by blood, marriage or adoption. 2. May not be a devisee under the electronic will or related by blood, marriage or adoption to a devisee under the electronic will. 3. Shall consistently employ and …

A. A person shall execute a written statement affirmatively agreeing to serve as the qualified custodian of an electronic will before the person may serve as a qualified custodian. The written statement may be executed by an electronic signature and maintained as an electronic re…

A. A qualified custodian shall provide access to or information concerning the electronic will in the electronic record or the certified paper original of the electronic will only to: 1. The testator or another person as directed by the written instructions of the testator. 2. Af…

A. On the creation of a certified paper original of an electronic will, if the electronic will has always been in the custody of a qualified custodian, the qualified custodian shall state in an affidavit all of the following: 1. That the qualified custodian is eligible to act as …

In the absence of a finding of a contrary intention, the rules of construction in this article control the construction of a will.

A will may provide for the passage of all property the testator owns at death and all property acquired by the estate after the testator's death.

A. If a devisee fails to survive the testator and is a grandparent, a descendant of a grandparent or a stepchild of either the testator or the donor of a power of appointment exercised by the testator's will, the following apply: 1. Except as provided in paragraph 3 of this subse…

A. Except as provided in section 14-2603, a devise, other than a residuary devise, that fails for any reason becomes a part of the residue. B. Except as provided in section 14-2603, if the residue is devised to two or more persons, the share of a residuary devisee that fails for …

A. If a testator executes a will that devises securities and the testator then owned securities that meet the description in the will, the devise includes additional securities owned by the testator at death to the extent the additional securities were acquired by the testator af…

A. A specific devisee has a right to the specifically devised property in the testator's estate at death and to the following: 1. Any balance of the purchase price, together with any security agreement, owing from a purchaser to the testator at death by reason of sale of the prop…

Subject to any mortgage interest existing at the date of death, a specific devise passes without right of exoneration, regardless of a general directive in the will to pay debts.

In the absence of a requirement that a power of appointment be exercised by a reference or by an express or specific reference to that power, a general residuary clause in a will or a will making general disposition of all of the testator's property expresses an intention to exer…

A. Property a testator gave to a person while the testator was alive is treated as a satisfaction of a devise in whole or in part if any of the following requirements are met: 1. The will provides for deduction of the gift. 2. The testator declared in a contemporaneous writing th…

In the absence of a finding of a contrary intention, the rules of construction in this article control the construction of a governing instrument. The rules of construction in this article apply to a governing instrument of any type, except as the application of a particular sect…

A. For the purposes of this article, except as provided in subsection D of this section, a person who is not established by clear and convincing evidence to have survived an event, including the death of another person, by one hundred twenty hours is deemed to have predeceased th…

The meaning and legal effect of a governing instrument is determined by the local law of the state selected in the governing instrument unless the application of that law is contrary to the requirements of article 4 of this chapter relating to exempt property and allowances or is…

If a governing instrument that creates a power of appointment expressly requires that the power be exercised by a reference, an express reference or a specific reference to the power or its source, it is presumed that the donor's intention was to prevent an inadvertent exercise o…

A. A person who is adopted or born out of wedlock and that person's descendants, if appropriate to the class, are included in class gifts and other terms of relationship in accordance with the intestate succession under article 1 of this chapter. Terms of relationship that do not…

A. If a beneficiary fails to survive the decedent and is a grandparent, a descendant of a grandparent or a stepchild of the decedent, the following apply: 1. Except as provided in paragraph 4 of this subsection, if the beneficiary designation is not in the form of a class gift an…

A. A future interest under the terms of a trust is contingent on the beneficiary surviving the distribution date. If a beneficiary of a future interest under the terms of a trust fails to survive the distribution date, the following apply: 1. Except as provided in subsection C of…

If a class gift in favor of descendants, issue or heirs of the body does not specify the manner in which the property is to be distributed among the family members who comprise that class, the property that comprises the class gift is distributed among the class members who are l…

A. If an applicable statute or a governing instrument calls for property to be distributed by representation or per capita at each generation, the property is divided into as many equal shares as there are surviving descendants in the generation nearest to the designated ancestor…

The common law doctrine of worthier title is not recognized in this state. Therefore, language in a governing instrument that describes the beneficiaries of a disposition as the transferor's heirs, heirs at law, next of kin, distributees, relatives, or family, or by similar langu…

A. If an applicable statute or a governing instrument calls for a present or future distribution to or creates a present or future interest in a designated individual's heirs, heirs at law, next of kin, relatives, or family, or by similar language, the property passes to those pe…

A. A proponent of a governing instrument has the burden of establishing prima facie proof of due execution in all cases. B. It is a rebuttable presumption that a person who executes a governing instrument is presumed to have capacity to execute the governing instrument and to hav…

A. A person who is divorced from the decedent or whose marriage to the decedent has been annulled is not a surviving spouse unless, by virtue of a subsequent marriage, that person is married to the decedent at the time of death. A decree of separation that does not terminate the …

A. A person who feloniously and intentionally kills the decedent forfeits all benefits under this chapter with respect to the decedent's estate, including an intestate share, an elective share, an omitted spouse's or child's share, a homestead allowance, exempt property and a fam…

A. Except as provided by the express terms of a governing instrument, a court order or a contract relating to the division of the marital estate made between a divorced couple before or after the marriage, divorce or annulment, the divorce or annulment of a marriage: 1. Revokes a…

A. A nonvested property interest is invalid unless at least one of the following is true: 1. At the time the interest is created it is certain to vest or to terminate not later than twenty-one years after the death of a person who is then alive. 2. The interest either vests or te…

A. Except as provided in subsections B and C of this section and section 14-2905, subsection C, the time of creation of a nonvested property interest or a power of appointment is determined under general principles of property law. B. If there is a person who alone can exercise a…

On the petition of an interested person, a court shall reform a disposition in the manner that most closely approximates the transferor's manifested plan of distribution and that is within the five hundred years allowed under section 14-2901 if: 1. A nonvested property interest o…

This article does not apply to: 1. A nonvested property interest or a power of appointment arising out of a nondonative transfer, except for a nonvested property interest or a power of appointment arising out of any of the following: (a) A premarital or postmarital agreement. (b)…