Power of attorney, health care directive and guardianship in Nebraska

Financial power of attorney in Nebraska

Law and official form

Law

Nebraska Uniform Power of Attorney Act

Uniform Power of Attorney Act

Yes (effective January 1, 2013)

Official form

Nebraska Statutory Form Power of Attorney (Neb. Rev. Stat. 30-4041), court form DC 6:12Published by Nebraska Supreme Court

You do not have to use it.

Form DC 6:12, Rev. 11/2023, with instructions DC 6:12a. Power of attorney forms are not filed with a court. Like any Nebraska power of attorney, it must be acknowledged before a notary.

Law: Neb. Rev. Stat. §§ 30-4001, 30-4004; Laws 2012, LB1113; Neb. Rev. Stat. § 30-4041

Signing rules

How to sign

Sign the power of attorney and acknowledge your signature before a notary public (or another official authorized to take acknowledgments). In Nebraska a power of attorney under the Act is not valid unless it is acknowledged.

Who signs

Signed by you, marked by you under Neb. Rev. Stat. 64-105.02, or signed in your conscious presence by another person you direct to sign your name.

Notary

Required

Witnesses

None required

Law: Neb. Rev. Stat. § 30-4005

Durable and springing

Is it durable?

A power of attorney created after January 1, 2013 is durable unless it expressly says it ends if you become incapacitated.

Law: Neb. Rev. Stat. 30-4004

Durable unless it says otherwise?

Yes: it continues if you lose capacity unless it says otherwise.

Starting later (springing)

It can start on a future date or event. You can name who decides the event happened. If it starts on your incapacity and no one you named can decide, a licensed physician or licensed psychologist, or a court or appropriate government official, can determine incapacity in writing.

Law: Neb. Rev. Stat. 30-4009

What an agent can and cannot do

Needs express permission

• Create, amend, revoke or end a living trust
• Make a gift
• Create or change rights of survivorship
• Create or change a beneficiary designation
• Delegate authority under the power of attorney
• Waive your right to be a beneficiary of a joint and survivor annuity or retirement survivor benefit
• Exercise fiduciary powers you can delegate
• Renounce or disclaim property, including a power of appointment

No power of attorney can

Unless the power of attorney says otherwise, an agent who is not your ancestor, spouse or descendant cannot use these special powers to give themselves (or someone they must support) an interest in your property. A financial power of attorney does not give health care powers.

Law: Neb. Rev. Stat. 30-4024(2)

Law: Neb. Rev. Stat. § 30-4024(1)

Agent duties, pay and court review

Agent duties

• Act in good faith, within the authority granted, and according to your reasonable expectations or best interest
• Act loyally for your benefit and avoid conflicts of interest
• Act with care, competence and diligence
• Keep a record of all receipts, payments and transactions
• Cooperate with your health care decision-maker
• Try to preserve your estate plan when that is in your best interest

Agent pay

Unless the power of attorney says otherwise, the agent is entitled to repayment of reasonable expenses and reasonable compensation.

Law: Neb. Rev. Stat. 30-4012

Asking a court to review an agent

You, the agent, a guardian or conservator, your health care decision-maker, your spouse, parent or descendant, a presumptive heir or devisee, a beneficiary, a government protective agency, your caregiver, or a person asked to accept the power of attorney can ask a court to construe it or review the agent's conduct. The county court and district court share jurisdiction over validity.

Law: Neb. Rev. Stat. 30-4006(1), 30-4016

Law: Neb. Rev. Stat. § 30-4014

When it ends and how to revoke it

It ends when

• You die
• You become incapacitated, if it is not durable
• You revoke it
• The document says it ends
• Its purpose is accomplished
• The agent dies, becomes incapacitated, resigns or is revoked and no other agent is named
• An action is filed to dissolve or annul your marriage to the agent, or for legal separation

Divorce ends a spouse's authority

Yes · Divorce rules in Nebraska (Divorce Law Map)

How to revoke

You can revoke the power of attorney or an agent's authority. Signing a new power of attorney does not revoke an earlier one unless it says so.

Telling others

Ending a power of attorney or an agent's authority does not affect an agent or other person who acts in good faith without actual knowledge that it ended; those acts still bind you.

Law: Neb. Rev. Stat. § 30-4010

Banks, other states and real estate

Banks and other businesses

A person asked to accept an acknowledged power of attorney must accept it, or ask for an agent's certification, translation or lawyer's opinion, within 7 business days, and then accept it within 5 business days after receiving it. It cannot demand a different form. Refusal is allowed only for listed reasons. A wrongful refusal can lead to a court order and liability for attorney's fees and costs.

Law: Neb. Rev. Stat. 30-4019, 30-4020

Signed in another state

A power of attorney signed outside Nebraska is valid if it complied with the law of the jurisdiction that governs it, or with federal military power of attorney rules.

Law: Neb. Rev. Stat. 30-4006(3)

Health care directive in Nebraska

The document and its form

Document

Power of Attorney for Health Care

Official form

Power of Attorney for Health Care (Neb. Rev. Stat. 30-3408), court form DC 6:13Published by Nebraska Supreme CourtVersion: Rev. 03/16

You do not have to use it.

Living will

Declaration (living will) under the Rights of the Terminally Ill Act

The living will is a separate document.

A declaration tells your doctor to withhold or withdraw life-sustaining treatment if you have an incurable and irreversible terminal condition or are in a persistent vegetative state. It must be signed by you (or another person at your direction) and witnessed by two adults or a notary public. No more than one witness may work for a health care provider treating you, and no witness may work for your life or health insurer. You can revoke it at any time in any manner.

Living will

Law: Neb. Rev. Stat. §§ 30-3404, 30-3408; Neb. Rev. Stat. §§ 20-404, 20-405, 20-406

Signing rules

How to sign

Put it in writing, name your attorney in fact, date it, and either have two qualified adult witnesses sign it or acknowledge it before a notary public.

Who signs

Signed and dated by you.

Notary

A notary or witnesses (your choice)

Witnesses

2 (instead of a notary)

Who cannot witness

Two adult witnesses must see you sign and date it, or hear you acknowledge your signature, and each signs a witness declaration. These people cannot be witnesses: your spouse, parent, child, grandchild, sibling, presumptive heir, known devisee, attending physician, mental health treatment team member, romantic or dating partner, or attorney in fact, or an employee of your life or health insurance provider. No more than one witness may be an administrator or employee of a health care provider caring for or treating you. The notary cannot be your attorney in fact or successor.

Law: Neb. Rev. Stat. §§ 30-3404, 30-3405

Who can be your agent and what the agent can do

Who cannot be your agent

These people cannot be your attorney in fact: your attending physician or a member of your mental health treatment team; their employees unless related to you; an owner, operator or employee of a health care provider where you are a patient or resident, unless related to you; or anyone unrelated to you who is already attorney in fact for ten or more people.

Law: Neb. Rev. Stat. 30-3406

When the agent starts

Your attorney in fact's authority starts when your attending physician (and any consulting physician) determines in writing that you cannot make health care decisions. A physician who is your attorney in fact cannot make that determination.

Law: Neb. Rev. Stat. 30-3411, 30-3412

Decisions an agent cannot make

Your attorney in fact cannot consent to anything you could not legally consent to, cannot make a decision that would end the life of your unborn child when it would probably be born alive with continued care, and can withhold or withdraw life-sustaining procedures or artificial nutrition and hydration only as the law allows.

Law: Neb. Rev. Stat. 30-3417, 30-3418

Revoking and conflicting documents

Revoking your agent

While competent, you can revoke a power of attorney for health care at any time, in any way you can communicate it. It takes effect when you tell your attending physician, a health care provider or your attorney in fact. Signing a new power of attorney for health care revokes the earlier one unless it says otherwise.

Revoking your instructions

A living will declaration can be revoked at any time and in any manner, whatever your mental or physical condition, effective when communicated to your attending physician or another health care provider.

Telling others

The attending physician must put the revocation in your medical record.

Divorce ends a spouse's authority

Yes · Divorce rules in Nebraska (Divorce Law Map)

Conflicting documents

Unless it says otherwise, a power of attorney for health care supersedes any conflicting earlier directive and any guardianship or conservatorship to the extent of health care decisions.

Law: Neb. Rev. Stat. 30-3420(5)

Law: Neb. Rev. Stat. §§ 30-3420, 20-406

Other states, registry and medical orders

Mental health directive

Nebraska's Advance Mental Health Care Directives Act lets an adult give instructions and preferences for future mental health care.

Law: Neb. Rev. Stat. 30-4401 to 30-4415, Laws 2020, LB247

Guardianship and conservatorship in Nebraska

What guardianship or conservatorship is

What it is called

Guardian (full or limited), temporary guardian, standby guardian, conservator; Public Guardian

When a court may appoint one

An incapacitated person is someone who, because of mental illness or deficiency, physical illness or disability, chronic drug use or intoxication or another cause, lacks sufficient understanding or capacity to make or communicate responsible decisions about themselves. The court may appoint a guardian on clear and convincing evidence that the person is incapacitated and that guardianship is necessary or desirable as the least restrictive alternative. The guardianship must be limited unless the court finds by clear and convincing evidence that a full guardianship is necessary.

Kinds

• Limited guardianship
• Full guardianship
• Temporary guardianship (emergency)
• Standby guardianship
• Conservatorship

Law: Neb. Rev. Stat. §§ 30-2601, 30-2619, 30-2620, 30-2626, 30-2627

Who can ask, which court and your own choice

Who may ask

The person alleged to be incapacitated or any person interested in their welfare, by a verified petition.

Court

County court of the county where the person lives.

Choosing your own

The person you nominate in a power of attorney, or the agent acting under it (or someone your agent nominates if the document allows), has first priority for appointment as guardian.

Law: Neb. Rev. Stat. 30-2627(b)(1), 30-4008(1)

Effect on a power of attorney

If a conservator is appointed, your agent must account to the conservator, and the conservator has the same power you would have to revoke or amend the power of attorney. Unless it says otherwise, your power of attorney for health care controls health care decisions over a guardianship or conservatorship (30-3420(5)).

Law: Neb. Rev. Stat. 30-4008(2)

Cost, fee waiver and forms

Filing fee

$44 total to file a guardianship petition in county court ($18 filing fee plus court fees), and $44 for a conservatorship petition or a combined guardianship and conservatorship petition (Nebraska Judicial Branch fee schedule, effective July 1, 2026; Neb. Rev. Stat. 33-126.02).

Fee waiver

A guardianship case can be brought or defended in forma pauperis (without paying fees) under Neb. Rev. Stat. 25-2301 to 25-2310.

Law: Neb. Rev. Stat. 30-2620.01

Steps

Steps

Other options and where to report abuse

Report abuse or exploitation

Nebraska DHHS Adult Protective Services (Adult Abuse and Neglect Hotline) · (800) 652-1999

Call or text the Eldercare Locator to find your local adult protective services: 1-800-677-1116 · eldercare.acl.gov

Good to know in Nebraska

• A Nebraska financial power of attorney is not valid unless acknowledged before a notary.

  Law: Neb. Rev. Stat. 30-4005

• Nebraska's guardianship law favors limited guardianship; a full guardianship needs clear and convincing evidence that it is necessary.

  Law: Neb. Rev. Stat. 30-2620

• The Nebraska Judicial Branch does not publish forms or instructions to start a guardianship or conservatorship; guardians and conservators must complete required education.

  Source: Judicial Branch guardianship page

• Since 2020, romantic or dating partners and mental health treatment team members cannot witness a power of attorney for health care.

  Law: Neb. Rev. Stat. 30-3405, LB247

Changes in 2024–2026

Laws 2024, LB1195, § 6 amended the health care power of attorney definitions section. The Nebraska Statutory Form Power of Attorney court form DC 6:12 was revised 11/2023. No 2024-2026 amendments found on the other financial POA or health care sections read (most date from Laws 2012, LB1113 or Laws 2020, LB247).

Law: Neb. Rev. Stat. 30-3402

Questions about powers of attorney in Nebraska