§ 30-2333. Revocation by divorce or annulment; no revocation by other changes of circumstances.

(a) For purposes of this section: (1) Beneficiary, as it relates to a trust beneficiary, includes a person who has any present or future interest, vested or contingent, and also includes the owner of an interest by assignment or other transfer; as it relates to a charitable trust, includes any person entitled to enforce the trust; and as it relates to a beneficiary of a beneficiary designation, refers to a beneficiary of an insurance or annuity policy, of an account with POD designation as defined in section 30-2716, of a security registered in beneficiary form, of a pension, profit-sharing, retirement, or similar benefit plan, or of any other nonprobate transfer at death; (2) Beneficiary designated in a governing instrument includes a grantee of a deed, a beneficiary of a transfer on death deed, a transfer-on-death beneficiary, a beneficiary of a POD designation, a devisee, a trust beneficiary, a beneficiary of a beneficiary designation, a donee, appointee, or taker in default of a power of appointment, and a person in whose favor a power of attorney or a power held in any individual, fiduciary, or representative capacity is exercised; (3) Disposition or appointment of property includes a transfer of an item of property or any other benefit to a beneficiary designated in a governing instrument; (4) Divorce or annulment means any divorce or annulment, or any dissolution or declaration of invalidity of a marriage, that would exclude the spouse as a surviving spouse within the meaning of section 30-2353. A decree of separation that does not terminate the status of husband and wife is not a divorce for purposes of this section; (5) Divorced individual includes an individual whose marriage has been annulled; (6) Governing instrument means a deed, a will, a trust, an insurance or annuity policy, an account with POD designation, a security registered in beneficiary form, a transfer on death deed, a pension, profit-sharing, retirement, or similar benefit plan, an instrument creating or exercising a power of appointment or a power of attorney, or a dispositive, appointive, or nominative instrument of any similar type, which is executed by the divorced individual before the divorce or annulment of his or her marriage to his or her former spouse; (7) Joint tenants with the right of survivorship and community property with the right of survivorship includes co-owners of property held under circumstances that entitle one or more to the whole of the property on the death of the other or others, but excludes forms of co-ownership registration in which the underlying ownership of each party is in proportion to that party's contribution; (8) Payor means a trustee, an insurer, a business entity, an employer, a government, a governmental agency or subdivision, or any other person authorized or obligated by law or a governing instrument to make payments; (9) Relative of the divorced individual's former spouse means an individual who is related to the divorced individual's former spouse by blood, adoption, or affinity and who, after the divorce or annulment, is not related to the divorced individual by blood, adoption, or affinity; and (10) Revocable, with respect to a disposition, appointment, provision, or nomination, means one under which the divorced individual, at the time of the divorce or annulment, was alone empowered, by law or under the governing instrument, to cancel the designation in favor of his or her former spouse or former spouse's relative, whether or not the divorced individual was then empowered to designate himself or herself in place of his or her former spouse or in place of his or her former spouse's relative and whether or not the divorced individual then had the capacity to exercise the power. (b) For purposes of this section, subject to subsection (c) of this section, a person has knowledge of a fact if the person: (1) Has actual knowledge of it; (2) Has received a notice or notification of it; or (3) From all the facts and circumstances known to the person at the time in question, has reason to know it. (c) An organization that conducts activities through employees has notice or knowledge of a fact only from the time the information was received by an employee having responsibility to act for the organization, or would have been brought to the employee's attention if the organization had exercised reasonable diligence. An organization exercises reasonable diligence if it maintains reasonable routines for communicating significant information to the employee having responsibility to act for the organization and there is reasonable compliance with the routines. Reasonable diligence does not require an employee of the organization to communicate information unless the communication is part of the individual's regular duties or the individual knows a matter involving the organization would be materially affected by the information. (d) Except as provided by the express terms of a governing instrument, a court order, or a contract relating to the division of the marital estate made between the divorced individuals before or after the marriage, divorce, or annulment, the divorce or annulment of a marriage: (1) Revokes any revocable (A) disposition or appointment of property made by a divorced individual to his or her former spouse in a governing instrument and any disposition or appointment created by law or in a governing instrument to a relative of the divorced individual's former spouse; (B) provision in a governing instrument conferring a general or nongeneral power of appointment on the divorced individual's former spouse or on a relative of the divorced individual's former spouse; and (C) nomination in a governing instrument, nominating a divorced individual's former spouse or a relative of the divorced individual's former spouse to serve in any fiduciary or representative capacity, including a personal representative, executor, trustee, conservator, agent, or guardian; and (2) Severs the interests of the former spouses in property held by them at the time of the divorce or annulment as joint tenants with the right of survivorship, transforming the interests of the former spouses into equal tenancies in common. (e) A severance under subdivision (d)(2) of this section does not affect any third-party interest in property acquired for value and in good faith reliance on an apparent title by survivorship in the survivor of the former spouses unless a writing declaring the severance has been noted, registered, filed, or recorded in records appropriate to the kind and location of the property which are relied upon, in the ordinary course of transactions involving such property, as evidence of ownership. (f) Provisions of a governing instrument are given effect as if the former spouse and relatives of the former spouse disclaimed all provisions revoked by this section or, in the case of a revoked nomination in a fiduciary or representative capacity, as if the former spouse and relatives of the divorced individual's former spouse died immediately before the divorce or annulment. (g) Provisions revoked solely by this section are revived by the divorced individual's remarriage to the former spouse or by a nullification of the divorce or annulment. (h) No change of circumstances other than as described in this section and section 30-2354 effects a revocation. (i)(1)(A) Except as provided in subdivision (i)(1)(B) of this section, a payor or other third party is not liable for having made a payment or transferred an item of property or any other benefit to a beneficiary designated in a governing instrument affected by a divorce, annulment, or remarriage, or for having taken any other action in good faith reliance on the validity of the governing instrument, before the payor or other third party received written notice of or has knowledge of the divorce, annulment, or remarriage. (B) Liability of a payor or other third party which is a financial institution making payment on a jointly owned account or to a beneficiary pursuant to the terms of a governing instrument on an account with a POD designation shall be governed by section 30-2732. (C) A payor or other third party is liable for a payment made or other action taken after the payor or other third party received written notice of a claimed forfeiture, severance, or revocation under this section. (2) Written notice of the divorce, annulment, or remarriage under subdivision (i)(1)(A) of this section must be mailed to the payor's or other third party's main office or home, be personally delivered to the payor or other third party, or, in the case of written notice to a person other than a financial institution, be delivered by such other means which establish that the person has knowledge of the divorce, annulment, or remarriage. Written notice to a financial institution with respect to a jointly owned account or an account with a POD designation shall be governed by section 30-2732. (3) Upon receipt of written notice of the divorce, annulment, or remarriage, a payor or other third party may pay any amount owed or transfer or deposit any item of property held by it to or with the court that has jurisdiction of the probate proceedings relating to the decedent's estate or, if no proceedings have been commenced, to or with the court that has jurisdiction of probate proceedings relating to decedents' estates located in the county of the decedent's residence. The court shall hold the funds or item of property and, upon its determination under this section, shall order disbursement or transfer in accordance with the determination. Payments, transfers, or deposits made to or with the court discharge the payor or other third party from all claims for the value of amounts paid to or items of property transferred to or deposited with the court. (j)(1) A person who purchases property from a former spouse, a relative of a former spouse, or any other person for value and without notice, or who receives from a former spouse, a relative of a former spouse, or any other person a payment or other item of property in partial or full satisfaction of a legally enforceable obligation, is neither obligated under this section to return the payment, item of property, or benefit nor is liable under this section for the amount of the payment or the value of the item of property or benefit. But a former spouse, relative of a former spouse, or other person who, not for value, received a payment, an item of property, or any other benefit to which that person is not entitled under this section is obligated to return the payment, item of property, or benefit, or is personally liable for the amount of the payment or the value of the item of property or benefit, to the person who is entitled to it under this section. (2) If this section or any part of this section is preempted by federal law with respect to a payment, an item of property, or any other benefit covered by this section, a former spouse, a relative of a former spouse, or any other person who, not for value, received a payment, an item of property, or any other benefit to which that person is not entitled under this section is obligated to return that payment, item of property, or benefit, or is personally liable for the amount of the payment or the value of the item of property or benefit, to the person who would have been entitled to it were this section or part of this section not preempted. (k) If a former spouse has notice of the fact that he or she is a former spouse, then any receipt of property or money to which this section applies is received by the former spouse as a trustee for the person or persons who would be entitled to that property under this section. History: Laws 1974, LB 354, § 55, UPC § 2-508; Laws 2017, LB517, § 1.