In force since January 2013
The Nebraska Uniform Real Property Transfer on Death Act, codified at Neb. Rev. Stat. § 76-3401 and following, became effective January 1, 2013, after the Governor signed it on April 5, 2012. It lets an owner record a deed naming a beneficiary who receives real property automatically at death, without probate court proceedings.
Two disinterested witnesses, not just a notary
Nebraska requires the transferor to sign in the presence of at least two disinterested witnesses, with everyone signing under oath before a notary public or other authorized officer bearing an official seal. Critically, a witness cannot be a named beneficiary, or that beneficiary's heir, child, or spouse — a specific, careful conflict-of-interest exclusion that goes beyond simply requiring witnesses in general.
The 30-day recording deadline
Here's Nebraska's most distinctive feature: the deed must be recorded with the county register of deeds within 30 days after it's signed — and it must also be recorded before the transferor's death. Both deadlines apply simultaneously. This is a genuine departure from most other states, which typically set no fixed deadline between signing and recording, as long as the deed gets recorded sometime before death. Someone who signs a Nebraska TOD deed and sets it aside for more than a month, intending to record it later, may find that the 30-day window has already closed before they ever get around to filing it — a real, practical trap for anyone who doesn't record promptly.
Required warnings on the deed itself
Nebraska law requires the deed to carry specific statutory warnings covering inheritance tax and Medicaid or creditor claims. Effective after September 3, 2025, the law added a further requirement: the deed must also carry a statutory insurance warning. This is a genuinely recent addition, reflecting the legislature's continued attention to making sure property owners understand the real consequences of using this tool before they sign.
Growing crops have their own rule
Reflecting Nebraska's agricultural economy, the statute includes a specific carve-out: growing crops on the transferred land pass to the owner's probate estate, rather than to the TOD deed beneficiary, unless the deed specifically directs otherwise. Anyone deeding working farmland this way needs to think through whether they actually want the crops themselves to follow the same beneficiary as the land, or to be handled separately through the estate.
Beneficiary survival and Medicaid reach
A named beneficiary must survive the transferor by 120 hours, unless the deed sets a different period. With multiple beneficiaries, they take equal undivided shares without survivorship between them, and a failed share passes proportionately to the others. The beneficiary takes the property subject to existing liens and encumbrances, without any title warranty. After death, the beneficiary can be personally liable, up to a proportionate share of the property's date-of-death equity, for unpaid estate claims, allowances, administration expenses, and Medicaid reimbursement — Nebraska's Medicaid estate statute expressly includes TOD-deed assets within its reach.
Revocation and joint ownership
The deed is revocable by a later recorded TOD deed, an express revocation executed with the same two-witness formalities, or an inter vivos deed — physical cancellation of the document does not work. Where joint owners made the deed together, all of the living joint-owner transferors must revoke it together. A TOD deed made by one joint owner is effective only if that owner turns out to be the last surviving owner of the property. See our guide to Nebraska joint tenancy rules for how that underlying co-ownership question gets decided.