Make your own Nebraska will.
Yours in about 20 minutes. Legally valid in Nebraska. Free to create, or add secure online document storage with the $29/year subscription.
Is a self-written will legal in Nebraska?
Yes. Nebraska recognizes wills you write yourself, as long as they meet the state's signing requirements. The governing statute is Neb. Rev. Stat. §30-2326 et seq.
Your will needs to be in writing, signed by you, and witnessed by 2 adults. You don't need a notary for the will itself to be valid, but adding a notarized "self-proving" affidavit makes the probate process faster later (this tool generates that for you automatically). Nebraska also recognizes handwritten ("holographic") wills, written entirely in your own handwriting and signed.
You must be at least 18 years old and of sound mind. A married person under 18 may also make a will, because marriage ends minority in Nebraska (Neb. Rev. Stat. §§30-2326, 43-2101). Choose witnesses who don't inherit under your will: some states void or reduce a gift to a witness, and the exact Nebraska rule is covered below. This tool walks you through the rules so you don't trip over them.
A will you write yourself has the same legal force as one drafted by an attorney, provided you follow the signing rules. Courts admit self-written wills to probate every day. An attorney's value is in advising on complex estates, not in drafting the document itself.
What it costs to make a will in Nebraska
A Nebraska estate-planning attorney typically charges $300 to $600 for a simple will, and $1,000 to $1,500 for a will-plus-revocable-trust package. Rates run higher in dense metros and lower in rural areas. Most attorneys bill at $250 to $400 per hour and need one or two meetings to draft a basic will.
You can also write a will entirely from scratch with a sheet of paper and a pen, with no software at all. Nebraska requires the same 2-witness signing process regardless of who drafts the document. The risk with a from-scratch will is technical: a missing self-proving affidavit, a witness who's also a beneficiary, or wording that creates ambiguity for the probate court. That's what this tool prevents.
Will.com is free at the document level. The $29/year subscription adds cloud-stored, zero-knowledge-encrypted access so you can edit and update your plan as life changes.
Nebraska will requirements at a glance
How it works
- 1
Answer a few questions
About you, your family, and what you own.
- 2
Download your will
A complete, personalized document, formatted for Nebraska courts.
- 3
Sign with witnesses
Print and sign in front of 2 adult witnesses. Keep the signed copy somewhere safe.
When you might want an attorney instead
An online will works for most people. It's the right tool when your situation is straightforward: you want to leave your assets to family or friends, you don't have complex tax issues, and you're not anticipating a fight over your estate.
Consider hiring an attorney if any of these apply:
- Your estate is large enough to trigger federal estate tax (over $15 million in 2026) or Nebraska estate or inheritance tax.
- You own a business, complex investments, or assets in multiple states or countries.
- You're in a blended family, especially if you want to leave assets to a current spouse while protecting children from a prior relationship.
- You have a child or beneficiary with special needs and want a supplemental-needs trust that won't disqualify them from public benefits.
- You expect someone to contest the will, or you're disinheriting a close family member.
- You have substantial retirement accounts and want sophisticated beneficiary planning.
If none of these apply, an online will is genuinely fine. The legal validity of your will doesn't depend on who drafted it, only on whether Nebraska's signing rules were followed.
Self-proving affidavit in Nebraska
Nebraska recognizes self-proving affidavits. Will.com attaches one to your will: a short statement your witnesses sign in front of a notary, swearing to what they saw when you signed. See Neb. Rev. Stat. §30-2329(1).
A self-proven will skips the requirement to track down witnesses years later for the probate court. It's optional, but adding the affidavit at signing time saves your executor work. Will.com generates the affidavit alongside the will.
Who can witness your will in Nebraska
Neb. Rev. Stat. §30-2330: any individual generally competent to be a witness may act as a witness to a will, and a will or any provision of it is not invalid because the will is signed by an interested witness. Nebraska adds one limit to the UPC rule: unless there is at least one disinterested witness to the will, an interested witness may receive property under it only up to the intestate share that witness would have taken had the testator died intestate at the date of death. On a two-witness Nebraska will, a gift to a witness therefore stands whenever the other witness takes nothing under the will; the cap bites only when both witnesses are beneficiaries.
Family changes after you sign
A child born or adopted after the will. A child who arrives after you sign, and who isn't named or accounted for in the will, is covered by Nebraska law rather than by your wishes. The safest practice is to update your will when your family changes.
Neb. Rev. Stat. §30-2321: a child born or adopted after the will was executed and not provided for in the will receives a share equal in value to the intestate share, unless (1) the will shows the omission was intentional, (2) when the will was executed the testator had one or more children and devised substantially all the estate to the other parent of the omitted child, or (3) the testator provided for the child by transfer outside the will in an amount equal to or greater than the child's intestate share. A living child omitted solely because the testator believed the child to be dead also receives the intestate share (§30-2321(b)). The share is satisfied by abatement of the devises made by the will, in the order set by Neb. Rev. Stat. §30-24,100 (§30-2321(c)).
A spouse you married after signing. Updating the will after marriage avoids relying on whatever Nebraska law provides by default.
Neb. Rev. Stat. §30-2320: a spouse who marries the testator after the will was executed and is not provided for in the will receives the intestate share unless that share has been waived under §30-2316. In satisfying that share, the devises made by the will abate as provided in Neb. Rev. Stat. §30-24,100.
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