Nebraska § 30-2351 - Contracts concerning succession.

§ 30-2351. Contracts concerning succession.

A contract to make a will or devise, or not to revoke a will or devise, or to die intestate, if executed after January 1, 1977, can be established only by (1) provisions of a will stating material provisions of the contract; (2) an express reference in a will to a contract and extrinsic evidence proving the terms of the contract; or (3) a writing signed by the decedent evidencing the contract. The execution of a joint will or mutual wills does not create a presumption of a contract not to revoke the will or wills.

Because there was no dispute that the premarital agreement was a writing signed by the decedent evidencing a contract with his widow or that the agreement called for her to receive $100,000 if she survived him, the premarital agreement satisfied the requirements for the establishment of a valid contract to make a will, and the widow was thus entitled to $100,000 from the decedent's estate. White v. White, 316 Neb. 616, 6 N.W.3d 204 (2024).

The only way to prove the existence of a contract to make a will or not to revoke a will or devise is by producing a will or signed writing in satisfaction of one of the three subsections of this section. Johnson v. Anderson, 278 Neb. 500, 771 N.W.2d 565 (2009).

For the purposes of this section, an oral contract is "executed" at such time as the parties become bound to each other for the performance of the terms of the agreement. In re Estate of Nicholson, 211 Neb. 805, 320 N.W.2d 739 (1982).