Colorado Inheritance Laws: Intestacy, Spousal Rights, and Probate

Colorado’s inheritance laws follow the Uniform Probate Code, and the state charges no estate or inheritance tax, so what your heirs actually receive depends on three things: whether you left a valid will, which family members survive you, and whether any of your assets were set up to transfer outside of probate.¹ The rules below walk through each of those pieces, plus the shortcuts and deadlines that come up most often when a Colorado estate is being settled.

Who Inherits When There Is No Will

If a Colorado resident dies without a valid will, the intestate succession statute decides who gets what.² One threshold rule applies to everyone in line: an heir must outlive the deceased by at least 120 hours. Anyone who dies within that five-day window is treated as having died first, and their share drops to the next person entitled to it.³

The Surviving Spouse’s Share

The surviving spouse’s intestate share depends on whether the deceased had children and whether those children were also the spouse’s. There are four scenarios:⁴

No descendants and no surviving parent of the deceased: the spouse inherits everything.
No descendants but a parent of the deceased survives: the spouse gets the first $300,000 plus three-fourths of the balance.
All descendants are shared with the surviving spouse, and the spouse has no other children: the spouse gets the first $225,000 plus half of the balance.
The deceased left children who are not also the spouse’s children: the spouse gets the first $150,000 plus half of the balance.

Those dollar figures are statutory base amounts. Colorado adjusts them periodically for cost of living, so the amount in effect at the date of death may be higher than what appears in the statute text.⁴

Children and More Distant Relatives

With no surviving spouse, the estate goes to the deceased’s children in equal shares. If a child has already died but left children of their own, those grandchildren step into the deceased child’s spot and split that share. With no spouse and no descendants, the estate passes to surviving parents, then outward to siblings and their descendants, then to grandparents, and so on.⁵ Only if no living heir can be found anywhere in that chain does the estate escheat to the state.⁶

Designated Beneficiary Agreements

Colorado offers an option most states don’t. Two unmarried adults can sign a designated beneficiary agreement that grants each other inheritance rights, among other protections. A designated beneficiary can inherit through intestate succession the way a spouse would, hold property as joint tenants, and be named on non-probate accounts.⁷ The agreement is presumed to include every available right unless the parties specifically opt out of one. It is a default rule, and a valid will, power of attorney, or beneficiary designation on an insurance policy or retirement account overrides it.

What Makes a Will Valid in Colorado

A Colorado will must be in writing and signed by the person making it. It also needs either two witnesses who sign within a reasonable time after watching the signing, or acknowledgment before a notary public.⁸ Witnesses don’t need the signer in direct line of sight, but they do need to be physically nearby.

Colorado also recognizes holographic wills, which are handwritten and need no witnesses or notary. A holographic will is valid as long as the signature and the material terms are in the person’s own handwriting.⁸ These documents hold up in court but are more open to challenge, because no witness can confirm the writer’s mental state or intent at the time.

A Spouse Cannot Be Fully Disinherited

A will cannot cut a surviving spouse out entirely. Colorado gives the survivor the right to claim an elective share equal to 50% of the marital-property portion of what the statute calls the augmented estate.⁹

The augmented estate is deliberately broad. It takes in the probate estate, non-probate transfers the deceased made to other people, non-probate transfers to the surviving spouse, and the surviving spouse’s own property.¹⁰ That broad definition stops someone from sheltering assets in trusts, joint accounts, or transfer-on-death designations in order to shortchange a spouse.

The marital-property portion scales with the length of the marriage. For marriages under a year, the spouse gets only a supplemental amount. At one year it starts at 10% and climbs by 10 percentage points each year, reaching 100% at ten years.¹⁰ The elective share is always 50% of that marital-property portion, so after ten years of marriage the survivor can reach up to 50% of the entire augmented estate.

To claim the elective share, the surviving spouse must file a petition with the court and deliver it to the personal representative within nine months of the death or six months after the will is admitted to probate, whichever is later.¹¹ A court can extend that if the spouse asks within the initial nine-month window and notifies the interested parties.

Assets That Skip Probate

Not everything a person owns runs through the probate court. Property held in joint tenancy with right of survivorship transfers automatically to the surviving owner; a death certificate is enough to establish full ownership. Bank accounts with payable-on-death designations and brokerage accounts with transfer-on-death instructions work the same way, with the institution releasing funds directly to the named beneficiary.

Assets inside a revocable living trust also avoid probate. The trust document names a successor trustee who distributes the property under the creator’s instructions without court involvement, and beneficiaries often receive their shares faster than they would through a probate case.

One caution here. Moving assets into a trust or adding a transfer-on-death beneficiary does not necessarily pull them out of the augmented estate for elective-share purposes. The augmented estate calculation specifically includes non-probate transfers, so a surviving spouse can still reach those assets when claiming the elective share.¹⁰ Avoiding probate and avoiding the elective share are two different things.

The Small Estate Affidavit Shortcut

When the estate’s total value minus any debts secured by the property falls below a statutory ceiling, heirs can skip formal probate using a small estate affidavit. For deaths occurring in 2026, the threshold is $88,000.¹² The amount adjusts annually for cost of living.¹³

The form is JDF 999, available through the Colorado Judicial Branch. You’ll need the deceased’s full legal name, Social Security number, and exact date of death, along with details on each asset being claimed, such as bank account numbers or vehicle identification numbers. Every person entitled to a share must be identified on the form. At least ten days have to pass between the death and the use of the affidavit.¹²

Once completed, the affidavit is signed before a notary. You don’t file it with the court. Instead, you present the notarized original or a certified copy directly to the bank, the DMV, or whichever institution holds the asset.¹² Bring multiple notarized copies, because each institution keeps the one it receives. Institutions are legally protected when they release assets to the person named on a properly executed affidavit, so most process the request within a few business days. If an institution refuses without good reason, it can face liability for attorney fees when a court later orders the transfer.

Creditor Claims and Why Heirs Shouldn’t Rush

Debts don’t disappear when someone dies. Creditors with pre-death claims have a limited window to come forward, and the personal representative has to resolve those claims before paying out to heirs. The outer deadline is one year from the date of death; after that, pre-death claims are permanently barred.¹⁴

The personal representative can shorten that window by publishing a notice to creditors or sending written notice to known creditors. Claims not filed within the time stated in those notices are barred even if the one-year period hasn’t run. Debts that arise after the death, such as a contract the representative signs to maintain estate property, have a shorter four-month deadline.¹⁴ For heirs, the practical point is to avoid pressuring the personal representative to hand everything out early. Distributing before the creditor period closes can put the representative on the hook personally.

Taxes on Inherited Property in Colorado

Colorado charges no state-level estate tax and no inheritance tax. The state eliminated its estate tax for deaths occurring after December 31, 2004, and it hasn’t been reinstated.¹ Neither the estate nor the individual beneficiaries owe Colorado anything simply because property changed hands at death.

Federal estate tax is a separate issue, and it reaches only very large estates. For 2026, the federal exemption is $15,000,000 per person.¹⁵ Estates below that owe no federal estate tax. Estates above it are taxed at rates up to 40% on the excess. Married couples can effectively double the exemption through portability, which lets the unused portion of the first spouse’s exemption transfer to the survivor.

For most heirs, the rule that actually matters is the step-up in basis. When you inherit an appreciated asset, your tax basis resets to its fair market value on the date of the owner’s death, not what the owner originally paid.¹⁶ If a parent bought a house for $120,000 and it was worth $450,000 on the date of death, your basis is $450,000. Sell it a year later for $460,000, and the capital gain is $10,000, not $340,000. The step-up applies to real estate, stocks, bonds, and most other appreciated assets. It does not apply to retirement accounts like 401(k)s and IRAs; distributions from those are taxed as ordinary income regardless of when the original contributions were made.

1
Colorado General Assembly. Estate Tax
2
Justia. Colorado Code 15-11-101 – Intestate Estate
3
FindLaw. Colorado Code 15-11-104 – Requirement of Survival by 120 Hours
4
Justia. Colorado Code 15-11-102 – Share of Spouse
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Colorado Public Law. Colorado Code 15-11-103 – Share of Heirs Other Than Surviving Spouse and Designated Beneficiary
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Justia. Colorado Code 15-11-105 – No Taker
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Justia. Colorado Code 15-22-106 – Statutory Form for Designated Beneficiary Agreement
8
Colorado Public Law. Colorado Code 15-11-502 – Execution
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Justia. Colorado Code 15-11-202 – Elective Share
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Justia. Colorado Code 15-11-203 – Composition of the Augmented Estate; Marital-Property Portion
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FindLaw. Colorado Code 15-11-211 – Right of Election; Time Limit
12
Colorado Judicial Branch. JDF 998 Guide to Collecting a Decedent’s Personal Property
13
Colorado Public Law. Colorado Code 15-12-1201 – Collection of Personal Property by Affidavit
14
FindLaw. Colorado Code 15-12-803 – Limitations on Presentation of Claims
15
Internal Revenue Service. What’s New – Estate and Gift Tax
16
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 1014 – Basis of Property Acquired From a Decedent