Adding your adult child to your bank account to “help with bills” feels like a harmless shortcut, but in Nebraska it can create real legal consequences you didn’t intend. Most joint accounts fall under Nebraska’s Multiple-Party Account rules, which draw an important distinction between ownership during your lifetime and who receives the money at your death. Even if you funded the account, joint ownership can expose your savings to your child’s creditors or divorce, and if the account has survivorship rights, it can pass automatically to that child at death, outside probate and outside your Will. The good news is you can usually get the same practical help without giving away ownership by using safer tools like a durable financial power of attorney, a bank signer or agency designation, and coordinated POD designations or trust planning.

Estate planning should do more than create a stack of documents — it should create a plan that actually works. This post walks through some of the most common estate planning mistakes and how to avoid them, so your plan protects what matters most when it’s needed.

A Transfer on Death (TOD) deed can seem like an easy fix to avoid probate and keep things simple after you’re gone—but without proper planning, it can leave behind more confusion than clarity. In this post, we break down how TOD deeds work in Nebraska, where they fall short, and what to consider before using one as your estate plan.

Prince died without a will—and the result was six years of legal chaos, family conflict, and millions lost to probate. If it can happen to someone with a $150 million estate, it can happen to anyone. This post breaks down what went wrong, how Nebraska law handles situations like this, and why having a plan isn’t just about money—it’s about peace.

Even a Hollywood legend can get estate planning wrong. Gene Hackman’s outdated will, lack of backups, and missing trust left his $80 million estate in legal limbo—and his family in chaos. If you’re assuming your old will still works or that your spouse will outlive you, this is your reminder: estate planning isn’t something to set and forget. Here’s what went wrong, and how to make sure your plan actually does what it’s supposed to.