If you die without a valid will while residing in the State of Nebraska, you are said to have died "intestate." In order to determine who will receive your property if you die intestate, the State of Nebraska has established a number of laws (known as "intestacy laws" or "laws of intestate succession.") The primary statutes comprising these intestacy laws, or laws of intestate succession, are set forth below. For a more complete list, see Chapter 30 (Decedents' Estates; Protection of Persons and Property) of Nebraska's Revised Statutes.
Any part of the estate of a decedent not effectively disposed of by his will passes to his heirs as prescribed in the following sections of this code.
(1) if there is no surviving issue or parent of the decedent, the entire intestate estate;(2) if there is no surviving issue but the decedent is survived by a parent or parents, the first fifty thousand dollars, plus one-half of the balance of the intestate estate;(3) if there are surviving issue all of whom are issue of the surviving spouse also, the first fifty thousand dollars, plus one-half of the balance of the intestate estate;(4) if there are surviving issue one or more of whom are not issue of the surviving spouse, one-half of the intestate estate.
(1) to the issue of the decedent; if they are all of the same degree of kinship to the decedent they take equally, but if of unequal degree, then those of more remote degree take by representation;(2) if there is no surviving issue, to his parent or parents equally;(3) if there is no surviving issue or parent, to the issue of the parents or either of them by representation;(4) if there is no surviving issue, parent or issue of a parent, but the decedent is survived by one or more grandparents or issue of grandparents, half of the estate passes to the paternal grandparents if both survive, or to the surviving paternal grandparent, or to the issue of the paternal grandparents if both are deceased, the issue taking equally if they are all of the same degree of kinship to the decedent, but if of unequal degree those of more remote degree take by representation; and the other half passes to the maternal relatives in the same manner; but if there be no surviving grandparent or issue of grandparent on either the paternal or the maternal side, the entire estate passes to the relatives on the other side in the same manner as the half;(5) if there is no surviving issue, parent, issue of a parent, grandparent or issue of a grandparent, the entire estate passes to the next of kin in equal degree, excepting that when there are two or more collateral kindred in equal degree, but claiming through different ancestors, those who claim through the nearest ancestor shall be preferred to those claiming through a more remote ancestor.
(1) an adopted person is the child of an adopting parent and not of the natural parents except that adoption of a child by the spouse of a natural parent has no effect on the relationship between the child and that natural parent.
(2) in cases not covered by (1), a person born out of wedlock is a child of the mother. That person is also a child of the father, if:
(i) the natural parents participated in a marriage ceremony before or after the birth of the child, even though the attempted marriage is void; or
(ii) the paternity is established by an adjudication before the death of the father or is established thereafter by strict, clear and convincing proof. The open cohabitation of the mother and alleged father during the period of conception shall be admissible as evidence of paternity. The paternity established under this subparagraph (ii) is ineffective to qualify the father or his kindred to inherit from or through the child unless the father has openly treated the child as his, and has not refused to support the child.
| Source: | Laws 1974, LB 354, § 31, UPC § 2-109.; |
[Reference - Nebraska's Intestacy laws]