Collection of Personal Property by Affidavit in Colorado

Colorado lets you collect a deceased person’s personal property without opening probate by using a small estate affidavit, provided the estate’s fair market value falls under an inflation-adjusted limit (for deaths in 2024, that limit was $82,000 after subtracting liens).¹ You wait at least ten days after death, sign a sworn statement, and hand it to whoever is holding the property. No court filing, no judge, no personal representative.

Who Can Use It

Four conditions all have to be true. Miss any one and you need probate instead.

The estate is under the threshold. Add up the fair market value of everything the decedent owned that would pass by will or intestate succession, wherever it is located, and subtract liens and encumbrances. The ceiling equals twice the exempt property allowance in C.R.S. 15-11-403 (a $30,000 base), adjusted annually by the Consumer Price Index. For 2024 deaths the figure was $82,000. Because the number changes each year, confirm the current one on the Colorado Judicial Branch website for the year of death you are dealing with.²
Ten days have passed since the death.³
No personal representative has been appointed or applied for in any jurisdiction. If probate has already started somewhere, the affidavit route closes.³
You are actually entitled to the property under the will or Colorado’s intestacy rules.

When you tally the estate’s value, include property anywhere, not just in Colorado. Assets that pass outside probate on their own usually don’t count: life insurance with a named beneficiary, jointly held accounts with survivorship rights, and retirement accounts with designated beneficiaries don’t pass by will or intestacy, so they generally stay off the ledger.

What the Affidavit Has to Say

This is a sworn document, not a letter. The statute requires it to state four things:

The fair market value of the decedent’s property subject to disposition by will or intestacy, less liens and encumbrances, does not exceed the current adjusted limit.
Ten or more days have passed since the death.
No personal representative is pending or appointed.
Each person named in the affidavit is entitled to the property described, and the affidavit identifies who gets what.³

The Colorado Judicial Branch publishes form JDF 999 for this purpose.¹ Using it isn’t required, but it keeps you from leaving out a required element. Sign under oath. Order several certified copies of the death certificate while you’re at it, because most institutions will want to see one before they release anything.

Where to Take It

You don’t file this with a court. You present it directly to whoever holds the property. Under C.R.S. 15-12-1201, any person indebted to the decedent or holding the decedent’s personal property must pay or deliver that property on receipt of a proper affidavit.³

Banks and Safe Deposit Boxes

The most common use is pulling funds from checking and savings accounts or clearing out a safe deposit box. If a check or other instrument was payable to the decedent or the estate, the successor presenting the affidavit can endorse and collect it. Individual banks layer their own procedures on top: expect to show the affidavit, the death certificate, and your own ID, and expect a branch manager or back-office team to sign off before funds move. Some banks ask you to complete their internal form as well.

Stocks, Bonds, and Brokerage Accounts

Transfer agents are required to re-register securities from the decedent to the successor on presentation of the affidavit.³ Call the brokerage or transfer agent first to confirm what format they want the documents in.

Vehicles

The statute also directs public officials who manage registered title to transfer ownership when presented with the affidavit.³ For a car, that means your county motor vehicle office. The Colorado DMV says to bring the death certificate along with the small estate paperwork.⁴ If the decedent had earlier filed a Transfer on Death Beneficiary form (DR 2009) for the vehicle, that handles the transfer on its own and you don’t need the affidavit for the car.

Money Others Owed the Decedent

Anyone who owed the decedent money, under a promissory note, a contract, or any other arrangement, has to pay a successor who presents the affidavit. One exception matters: if the debt is secured by real property, the affiant has to record a copy of the affidavit and the death certificate with the county clerk and recorder where the real property sits before acting on the creditor’s behalf.

What the Affidavit Can’t Do

It only reaches personal property. You cannot use it to transfer real estate.⁵ A house, land, or any other real property has to go through probate or another court-supervised proceeding, no matter what it’s worth.

It also doesn’t work if the estate’s value exceeds the current limit, or if a personal representative has already been appointed or applied for. And it offers no mechanism to resolve disagreements. If heirs disagree about who is entitled to what, you need a court.

Your Responsibilities After You Collect

Everything in the affidavit is sworn. Claiming entitlement you don’t have, understating the estate to slide under the threshold, or misrepresenting any required fact exposes you to fraud liability. A court can order you to return the property and pay damages to whoever should have received it.

On the other side, a property holder who releases assets in good faith on a compliant affidavit is generally protected from later disputes between heirs. That protection is why banks and transfer agents cooperate with the process at all.

Collecting by affidavit does not erase the decedent’s debts. Creditors can still pursue the estate’s assets. If you distribute everything to heirs before paying legitimate debts, you can be on the hook personally for those amounts. Before handing anything out, make a reasonable effort to identify and pay outstanding obligations: final medical bills, credit card balances, taxes the decedent owed.

On taxes: Colorado has no state estate tax or inheritance tax, and the federal estate tax threshold is so far above the affidavit ceiling that it will essentially never apply here. The decedent’s final income tax return still has to be filed. If the inherited assets produce income after they transfer to you (interest, dividends, rent), that income is yours to report from the date you take ownership. If accounts keep earning between the death and the distribution, Colorado may require a fiduciary income tax return for the estate; a tax professional is worth a call if the estate includes income-producing assets.

When You Need Probate Instead

If the estate is over the limit, includes real property, or involves disputes among heirs or serious creditor claims, the affidavit won’t carry you. Colorado offers two routes.

Formal probate puts a judge in charge. A personal representative is appointed, inventories assets, notifies creditors, pays debts in the priority order set by Colorado law, and distributes what remains.⁶ It takes longer and costs more, but it gives everyone a structured forum.

Informal probate sits in between. The court still appoints a personal representative, but that representative manages and distributes assets with broad authority and little day-to-day judicial involvement. For an estate that is slightly above the affidavit ceiling, or that includes real estate but no serious disputes, informal probate is often the practical pick.

1
Colorado Judicial Branch. Collection of Personal Property by Affidavit
2
Justia. Colorado Code 15-11-403 – Exempt Property
3
Justia. Colorado Code 15-12-1201 – Collection of Personal Property by Affidavit
4
Colorado DMV. What to Do When a Loved One Dies
5
Colorado Judicial Branch. Guide to Collecting Decedent’s Personal Property
6
Justia. Colorado Code 15-12-807 – Order of Payment of Claims