Title 14 — Trusts, Estates and Protective Proceedings

A judicial officer presiding over proceedings brought pursuant to this title must participate in training as prescribed by the supreme court.

A. This title shall be liberally construed and applied to promote its underlying purposes and policies. B. The underlying purposes and policies of this title are: 1. To simplify and clarify the law concerning the affairs of decedents, missing persons, protected persons, minors an…

Unless displaced by the particular provisions of this title, the principles of law and equity supplement its provisions.

In a proceeding brought pursuant to this title: 1. The fiduciary must prudently manage costs, preserve the assets of the ward or protected person for the benefit of the ward or protected person and protect against incurring any costs that exceed probable benefits to the ward, pro…

A. If the court finds that a decedent's estate or trust has incurred professional fees or expenses as a result of unreasonable conduct, the court may order the person who engaged in the conduct or the person's attorney, or both, to pay the decedent's estate or trust for some or a…

If fraud has been perpetrated in connection with any proceeding or in any statement filed under this title or if fraud is used to avoid or circumvent the provisions or purposes of this title, any person injured thereby may obtain appropriate relief against the perpetrator of the …

In addition to the rules of evidence in courts of general jurisdiction, the following rules relating to a determination of death and status apply: 1. A determination of death must be made in accordance with accepted medical standards. 2. A certified or authenticated copy of a dea…

In a proceeding brought pursuant to this title the court may require arbitration of a dispute pursuant to the requirements of section 12-133, subsections B through L, or order alternative dispute resolution.

If an interested person files a motion or petition that requests the same or substantially similar relief to the relief requested in another motion or petition filed by the same interested person within the preceding twelve months and if the later filed motion or petition does no…

(Rpld. 1/1/28) A. The probate advisory panel is established in the office of the governor. The panel consists of the following members who are appointed to staggered four-year terms: 1. Two public members who are guardians or conservators of an adult child or a sibling who is a w…

In this title, unless the context otherwise requires: 1. "Agent" includes an attorney-in-fact under a durable or nondurable power of attorney, a person who is authorized to make decisions concerning another person's health care and a person who is authorized to make decisions for…

Except as otherwise provided in this title, the title applies to: 1. The affairs and estates of decedents, missing persons and persons to be protected, domiciled in this state. 2. The property of nonresidents located in this state or property coming into the control of a fiduciar…

A. To the full extent permitted by the constitution, the court has jurisdiction over all subject matter relating to: 1. Estates of decedents, including construction of wills and determination of heirs and successors of decedents, and estates of protected persons. 2. Protection of…

A. Where a proceeding under this title could be maintained in more than one place in this state, the court in which the proceeding is first commenced has the exclusive right to proceed. B. If proceedings concerning the same estate, protected person, ward or trust are commenced in…

Unless specifically provided to the contrary in this title or unless inconsistent with its provisions, the rules of probate procedure govern formal proceedings under this title.

The clerk of the court shall keep a record for each decedent, ward, protected person or trust involved in any document which may be filed with the court under this title including petitions and applications, demands and any orders or responses relating thereto by the registrar or…

A. If duly demanded, a party is entitled to trial by jury in any proceeding in which any controverted question of fact arises as to which any party has a constitutional right to trial by jury. B. If there is no right to trial by jury under subsection A of this section or the righ…

The acts and orders which this title specifies as performable by the registrar shall be performed by a judge, the clerk of the court, a court commissioner or any of such at the selection of the presiding judge of the county designated by the court by a written order filed and rec…

Except as otherwise specifically provided in this title or by rule, each document filed with the court or furnished to an interested person under this title including applications, petitions, demands for notice, claims, inventories and accounts shall be deemed to include an oath,…

Except as otherwise provided in this title, the standard of proof required in a judicial proceeding brought pursuant to this title is the preponderance of evidence. Parties have the ultimate burden of persuasion as to matters with respect to which they have the initial burden of …

A. If notice of a hearing on any petition is required and except for specific notice requirements as otherwise provided, the petitioner shall cause notice of the time and place of hearing of any petition to be given to any interested person or his attorney if he has appeared by a…

Whenever it appears by suggestion of any interested person or the court that no taker of the estate exists, either at the commencement of or during proceedings under this title, notification of such proceedings shall be given to the attorney general.

A person, including a guardian ad litem, conservator or other fiduciary, may waive notice by a writing signed by him or his attorney and filed in the proceeding.

In formal proceedings involving trusts or estates of decedents, minors, protected persons or incapacitated persons, interests to be affected must be described in pleadings that give reasonable information to owners by name or class, by reference to the instrument creating the int…

A. Notice to a person who may represent and bind another person under this article has the same effect as if notice were given directly to the other person. B. Except as otherwise provided in section 14-10602, subsection E, a person who under this article may represent a settlor …

The holder of a general power of appointment, including a general testamentary power of appointment, may represent and bind persons whose interests, as permissible appointees, takers in default or otherwise, are subject to the power.

To the extent there is no material conflict of interest between the representative and the person represented or among those being represented with respect to a particular question or dispute: 1. A conservator may represent and bind the estate that the conservator controls. 2. A …

Unless otherwise represented, a minor, incapacitated person, unborn child or person whose identity or location is unknown and not reasonably ascertainable may be represented by and bound by another person who has a substantially identical interest with respect to the particular q…

[Repealed or reserved.]

A. Any part of a decedent's estate not effectively disposed of by will passes by intestate succession to the decedent's heirs as prescribed in this chapter, except as modified by the decedent's will. B. A decedent by will may expressly exclude or limit the right of a person or cl…

The following part of the intestate estate, as to both separate property and the one-half of community property that belongs to the decedent, passes to the surviving spouse: 1. If there is no surviving issue or if there are surviving issue all of whom are issue of the surviving s…

Any part of the intestate estate not passing to the decedent's surviving spouse under section 14-2102 or the entire intestate estate if there is no surviving spouse passes in the following order to the following persons who survive the decedent: 1. To the decedent's descendants b…

A. A person who does not survive the decedent by at least one hundred twenty hours is deemed to have predeceased the decedent for purposes of homestead allowance, exempt property and intestate succession, and the decedent's heirs are determined accordingly. B. If it is not establ…

If no one is qualified to claim the estate under this article, the intestate estate passes to the state.

A. If under section 14-2103, paragraph 1 all or part of a decedent's intestate estate passes by representation to the decedent's descendants, that estate is divided into as many equal shares as there are surviving descendants in the generation nearest to the decedent that contain…

Relatives of the half blood inherit the same share they would inherit if they were of the whole blood.

A child in gestation at a particular time is treated as living at that time if the child lives at least one hundred twenty hours after its birth.

A. If a person dies intestate as to all or a portion of that person's estate, property the decedent gave during the decedent's lifetime to a person who, at the decedent's death, is an heir is treated as an advancement against the heir's intestate share only if the decedent declar…

A debt owed to a decedent is not charged against the intestate share of any person except the debtor. If the debtor fails to survive the decedent, the debt is not taken into account in computing the intestate share of the debtor's descendants.

No person is disqualified to take as an heir because that person or a person through whom that person claims is or has been an alien.

A person who is related to the decedent through two lines of relationship is entitled to only a single share based on the relationship that would entitle the person to the larger share.

A. Except as provided in subsections B and C of this section, for the purposes of intestate succession, a person is the child of that person's natural parents, regardless of their marital status. If this issue is in dispute the court shall establish that relationship under title …

A. A surviving spouse may waive the person's homestead allowance, exempt property and family allowance rights in whole or in part either before or after marriage by a written contract, agreement or waiver that is signed by the surviving spouse. B. A surviving spouse's waiver is n…

A. If a testator's surviving spouse married the testator after the testator executed a will, the surviving spouse is entitled to receive as an intestate share that is not less than the value of the share of the estate the spouse would have received if the testator had died intest…

A. Except as provided in subsection D of this section, if a testator fails to provide by will for a child who is born or adopted after the testator executes the will, the omitted child receives a share in the estate as follows: 1. If the testator had no child living when the test…

This article applies to the estate of a decedent who dies domiciled in this state. Rights to homestead allowance, exempt property and family allowance for a decedent who is not domiciled in this state at the time of death are governed by the law of the decedent's domicile at deat…

A. A decedent's surviving spouse is entitled to a homestead allowance of $18,000. If there is no surviving spouse each minor child and each dependent child of the decedent are entitled to a homestead allowance of $18,000 divided by the number of minor and dependent children of th…

A. In addition to the homestead allowance, the decedent's surviving spouse is entitled from the estate to a value that is not more than seven thousand dollars in excess of any security interests in that estate in the following: 1. Household furniture. 2. Automobiles. 3. Furnishin…

A. The decedent's surviving spouse and minor children whom the decedent was obligated to support and children who were in fact being supported by the decedent are entitled to a reasonable allowance in money out of the estate for their maintenance during the period of administrati…

A. If the estate is otherwise sufficient, property specifically devised may not be used to satisfy rights to homestead allowance or exempt property. Subject to this restriction, the surviving spouse, guardians of minor children or children who are adults may select property of th…