Spousal Elective Share Requirements in Nevada

At a glance

What Nevada does instead

Nevada does not provide a general elective share or a will-renunciation right for a fixed fraction of the decedent's estate. The complete current Title 12 chapter index, together with current Chapters 133 and 134, contains no such scheme. Nevada instead protects the survivor through community-property ownership.

Nev. Rev. Stat. § 123.225 makes each spouse's community interest present, existing, and equal during marriage. Section 123.230(1) therefore bars either spouse from devising more than one-half of community property. At death, § 123.250(1)(a) makes an undivided one-half community interest the survivor's sole separate property. The remaining half is the only community portion subject to the decedent's will and Title 12 administration.

This is direct ownership, not an elected percentage of a probate or augmented estate. Nevada consequently supplies no elective-share calculation, deductions, deadline, filing, service, waiver, payment order, or recipient- contribution procedure.

What trips people up

• The community half is not half of the decedent's entire estate. Section 123.250 concerns community property, while § 134.010 says Nevada's intestate- succession chapter applies only to the decedent's separate property when a spouse survives.
• Survivorship property follows its own route. Section 123.250(2)(b) excludes community property with right of survivorship; § 134.010(1) says that property vests according to the survivorship right.
• Property agreements are not elective-share waivers. Section 123.010 lets an enforceable premarital agreement or marriage contract govern marital property rights, and § 123.270 requires a marriage contract or settlement to be written and acknowledged. Those agreements alter the ownership baseline; they do not waive an elective share Nevada does not create.
• Other probate protections are separate remedies. Omitted-spouse and small-estate statutes may apply to different facts, but combining them with community ownership in a document labeled an election does not create a general elective-share system.

Common questions

Can a Nevada spouse file an election against the will? No general elective-share filing exists. The current statutes instead make the survivor's one-half community interest the survivor's sole separate property under Nev. Rev. Stat. § 123.250.

Can the deceased spouse give away all community property by will? No. Section 123.230(1) says neither spouse may devise or bequeath more than one-half of community property.

Does the survivor have to claim the community half by a deadline? Not under an elective-share statute. Section 123.250 makes that half the survivor's property upon death and states no election deadline or filing procedure.

What if the community property carries a right of survivorship? Section 123.250 excludes it from the ordinary split, and § 134.010 says it vests under the survivorship right.

Statutes and sources

• Title 12 NRS, complete official chapter index — the current official wills-and-estates title contains Chapters 132 through 156 and no general elective-share or will-renunciation chapter. Official NRS index (accessed 2026-08-02).
• Nev. Rev. Stat. §§ 123.225 and 123.230(1) — equal present community interests and the one-half testamentary limit. Official Chapter 123 (accessed 2026-08-02).
• Nev. Rev. Stat. § 123.250 — makes the survivor's half sole separate property, limits administration to the decedent's half, and preserves the survivorship-property exception. Official Chapter 123 (accessed 2026-08-02).
• Nev. Rev. Stat. §§ 123.010 and 123.270 — property-agreement exceptions and written, acknowledged marriage contracts. Official Chapter 123 (accessed 2026-08-02).
• Nev. Rev. Stat. § 134.010 — routes community property through § 123.250 or a survivorship right and limits intestate succession to the decedent's separate property. Official Chapter 134 (accessed 2026-08-02).