Will Revocation and Revival Requirements in Nebraska

At a glance

Nebraska's Probate Code uses three consecutive sections for revocation, divorce, and revival. Its general definition makes clear that will includes a codicil and another qualifying testamentary instrument whose purpose is to revoke or revise an earlier one.

Requirements one by one

Later will, codicil, or writing

Section 30-2332 permits a subsequent will to revoke the earlier will or any part either expressly or by inconsistency. The revocatory effect may be evident from the later will's terms or from competent evidence of those terms.

Nebraska does not create a separate informal-note route. Under § 30-2209(53), a revocation-only instrument is a will only when it complies with the statutory will provisions in §§ 30-2326 through 30-2338. A bare signed memorandum should not be treated as a statutory revocation unless it independently qualifies.

Physical act and another person's act

The five acts are burning, tearing, canceling, obliterating, and destroying. The act must be done with both the intent and purpose of revoking the will or part. Another person may perform it only in the testator's presence and by the testator's direction.

Section 30-2332 does not add witnesses for that directed act and does not state an electronic-specific route such as deletion, rendering a record unreadable, or removing control of an electronic original.

Partial revocation

The opening words of § 30-2332 are direct: "[a] will or any part thereof is revoked." That scope applies to both routes. A subsequent will may revoke a part expressly or by inconsistency, and the listed destructive act may target only part of the instrument.

Nebraska does not add a separate rule forbidding cancellation of one provision or requiring the physical act to reach the signature.

Intent, proof, and presumptions

For physical revocation, intent is an element: the act must occur "with the intent and for the purpose of revoking" the will or part. For a later will, the statute asks whether its terms or competent evidence of its terms show express or inconsistent revocation.

Unlike several other UPC states, § 30-2332 does not create complete-disposition and incomplete-disposition presumptions. The surveyed sections also state no quantified statutory evidence standard and no presumption based solely on a missing original.

Divorce, annulment, remarriage, and other changes

Section 30-2333 covers wills as one type of "governing instrument." Unless the instrument, a court order, or a marital-estate contract provides otherwise, divorce or annulment revokes three categories for the former spouse and former spouse's relatives:

1. revocable property dispositions and appointments;
2. general and nongeneral powers of appointment; and
3. nominations to fiduciary or representative office, including personal representative, executor, trustee, conservator, agent, or guardian.

The will operates as if those persons disclaimed the revoked provisions or, for a revoked nomination, died immediately before the divorce or annulment. A separation that leaves spouse status intact is not a divorce.

Remarriage to the former spouse or nullification of the divorce or annulment revives provisions revoked solely by § 30-2333. Subsection (h) says no other change of circumstances revokes, apart from § 30-2354's separate homicide rule. Later marriage, birth, or adoption therefore does not itself revoke the will under this scheme.

Revival after the second will is revoked

Section 30-2334 rejects automatic revival. When a second will that would have revoked the first is itself revoked by acts under § 30-2332, the first remains revoked in whole or part unless the revocation circumstances or the testator's contemporary or later declarations show intent that the first take effect as executed.

When a third will revokes the second, the first remains revoked except to the extent the third will's terms show that the testator intended the first to take effect. The third-will route therefore looks only to the third will's terms, while the act route also looks to circumstances and declarations.

Reexecution, republication, and codicil effect

Nebraska has no separate statute making formal reexecution the exclusive restoration method, no republication-by-codicil section, and no presumption that revoking a codicil restores every provision it changed.

Because § 30-2209(53) includes codicils in the word "will," a later duly executed codicil can supply the third-will terms showing revival intent under § 30-2334(b). Mere possession of the earlier original or destruction of the second will is not, by itself, statutory republication.

What trips people up

• Partial destructive revocation is express. The statute reaches a will "or any part thereof" and does not limit physical acts to the whole instrument.
• Presence is mandatory for another person's act. Direction without the testator present does not satisfy § 30-2332(2).
• Divorce reaches former-spouse relatives. It affects gifts, powers, and fiduciary nominations, subject to the listed exceptions.
• Remarriage revival is automatic only for the divorce rule. Reviving an earlier will after revoking a later will still requires the intent evidence in § 30-2334.
• A third will and a destructive act use different evidence. The former uses the third will's terms; the latter can use circumstances and declarations.

Common questions

Can a Nebraska will be revoked by a separate note?

Only if the note qualifies as a will under the governing execution statutes. Nebraska does not provide a separate informal-writing route in § 30-2332.

May another person destroy the will?

Yes, but the person must act in the testator's presence and at the testator's direction, with the required revocatory intent and purpose.

Does divorce revoke the whole will?

No. Section 30-2333 revokes the covered dispositions, powers, and nominations for the former spouse and qualifying former-spouse relatives, then gives the remaining instrument effect under its construction rule.

Does destroying the second will revive the first?

Not automatically. The circumstances or the testator's contemporary or subsequent declarations must show intent that the first will take effect as executed.

Statutes and sources

• Neb. Rev. Stat. § 30-2209(53) — definition of will, including codicils and qualifying revocation-only testamentary instruments. Official text (accessed 2026-08-01).
• Neb. Rev. Stat. § 30-2332 — whole and partial revocation by later will or physical act; intent and directed-person rules. Official text (accessed 2026-08-01).
• Neb. Rev. Stat. § 30-2333 — divorce, annulment, former-spouse-relative revocation, construction, exceptions, and remarriage revival. Official text (accessed 2026-08-01).
• Neb. Rev. Stat. § 30-2334 — intent-based revival after acts or a third will. Official text (accessed 2026-08-01).