When a Colorado resident dies without a will, state law decides who inherits. Colorado’s intestate succession statute sets a fixed order that starts with the surviving spouse, then moves to children and grandchildren, then to parents, siblings, and more distant relatives. The exact share each person receives depends on who else is still alive at the time of death.
These rules only apply to property that would otherwise pass through probate. Life insurance, retirement accounts, and jointly held assets follow their own paths, which is covered further down.
What the Surviving Spouse Inherits
The spouse’s share depends on whether the deceased left descendants or parents, and on whose children are involved. Colorado’s statute lays out five scenarios:
- No surviving descendants and no surviving parents: the spouse takes the entire estate.
- All surviving descendants are children of both spouses, and the surviving spouse has no children from another relationship: the spouse takes the entire estate.
- No surviving descendants, but a parent of the deceased is alive: the spouse receives the first $200,000 plus three-fourths of the balance. The rest goes to the surviving parent or parents.
- All surviving descendants are children of both spouses, but the surviving spouse has children from another relationship: the spouse receives the first $150,000 plus three-fourths of the balance.
- At least one surviving descendant of the deceased is not a descendant of the surviving spouse: the spouse receives the first $150,000 plus one-half of the balance.
Those dollar amounts are statutory base figures. Colorado adjusts them periodically for cost of living under CRS 15-10-112, so the actual thresholds applied to a given estate may be higher. The probate court applies the figure in effect at the date of death.
The scenario people miss most often is the fourth one. Even when every child of the deceased is also a child of the surviving spouse, the spouse does not take everything if the spouse has an outside child from a different relationship. That outside child reduces the spouse’s share.
What Children and Grandchildren Inherit
With no surviving spouse, the deceased’s children split the entire estate equally. With a spouse in the picture, the children divide whatever remains after the spouse’s share.
Colorado uses a distribution method called per capita at each generation. If a child of the deceased has already died but left children of their own, those grandchildren step up, but the shares at each generational level are pooled and divided equally rather than following strict family branches.
An example: the deceased had three children, one of whom died first, leaving two grandchildren. The two surviving children each take a one-third share. The remaining one-third does not simply split between the two grandchildren along the predeceased parent’s branch. Instead, the shares of all deceased members of that generation are combined and divided equally among the next generation of descendants. In this case each grandchild still ends up with one-sixth, but in more tangled family trees the method can produce a different result than a traditional per-stirpes split.
What Parents, Siblings, and More Distant Relatives Inherit
If no spouse or descendants survive, the estate passes to the deceased’s parents equally, or entirely to one parent if only one is alive.
If neither parent survives, the estate moves to the parents’ descendants, meaning the deceased’s siblings and the children of any sibling who died first. The same per-capita-at-each-generation method applies.
If no siblings or their descendants survive, the search extends to grandparents and then to descendants of grandparents, including aunts, uncles, and cousins. The statute works through both the paternal and maternal sides, splitting the estate between them when relatives exist on both.
If a diligent search turns up no living heir, the estate escheats to the state. Colorado courts disfavor escheatment and resolve doubt in favor of potential heirs, but when no one with a legal claim comes forward, the property passes to state custody.
Assets That Bypass These Rules
Intestate succession only governs assets that would otherwise go through probate. Several common asset types transfer outside the probate estate entirely:
- Life insurance and retirement accounts pass to whoever is named on the beneficiary designation form. A 401(k) goes to the listed beneficiary even if the intestate rules would send it elsewhere.
- Jointly held property with right of survivorship goes directly to the surviving co-owner the moment the other owner dies.
- Payable-on-death and transfer-on-death accounts go straight to the named beneficiary. The designation controls regardless of what the intestate rules say.
This is where most confusion arises. Families sometimes assume everything the deceased owned will be divided by the statutory hierarchy, then discover that the largest accounts already transferred to a named beneficiary. The intestate rules apply only to what is left.
Who Can Be Disqualified From Inheriting
Colorado’s slayer statute bars anyone who feloniously kills the deceased from inheriting. The law defines a felonious killing as one resulting in a conviction for, guilty plea to, or no-contest plea to first-degree murder, second-degree murder, or manslaughter. A disqualified person is treated as having died before the deceased, so their share passes to whoever is next in line. The forfeiture also covers the elective share, homestead exemption, exempt property, and family allowance.
A parent can be disqualified from inheriting from a child’s estate in two situations. First, if the parent’s rights were formally terminated and never judicially restored. Second, if the child died before turning 18 and clear and convincing evidence shows the parent’s rights could have been terminated based on nonsupport, abandonment, abuse, or neglect. A disqualified parent is treated as having predeceased the child.
The 120-Hour Survival Rule
An heir must survive the deceased by at least 120 hours, meaning five full days, to inherit under Colorado’s intestate rules. Without clear and convincing evidence that the heir lived at least 120 hours longer, the law treats that heir as having died first. This matters most in car accidents or other events where multiple family members die close together. The rule prevents property from passing through one estate and immediately into another, which could shift assets to an unintended branch of the family.
Special Situations
Adopted Children
Colorado treats adopted children the same as biological children for inheritance. An adopted child has the same right to an intestate share as any biological child, and adoption creates a full parent-child relationship for succession.
Common-Law Spouses
Colorado still recognizes common-law marriage. A common-law spouse has the same inheritance rights as a spouse married through a ceremony with a license. The practical hurdle is proof. When another family member disputes the marriage, the surviving partner has to establish it in probate court before claiming the spousal share, often through evidence of shared finances, cohabitation, and whether the couple held themselves out publicly as married.
Posthumous Children
A child conceived before a parent’s death but born afterward generally inherits as any other child would. For children conceived after death through assisted reproduction, the analysis is more complicated. There typically must be evidence that the deceased parent consented to the posthumous use of their genetic material and intended any resulting child to be treated as an heir.
When a Will Covers Only Part of the Estate
Partial intestacy happens when a will exists but does not address every asset. Assets covered by the will pass under its terms; anything else follows the intestate rules. This is more common than people expect. A will might distribute real estate and investment accounts but say nothing about a vehicle, personal property, or a bank account opened after the will was drafted.
The result can create awkward splits. A friend named in the will might take the house while a bank account the deceased forgot to mention passes to a sibling under the intestate hierarchy. A residuary clause in the will, directing where any unmentioned assets should go, prevents this.
What Happens Next: Probate or Small Estate Affidavit
For estates with a gross value at or below $88,000 (the threshold for deaths occurring in 2026), heirs can collect the deceased’s personal property using a small estate affidavit rather than opening a formal probate case. The simplified procedure is governed by CRS 15-12-1201 and 15-12-1202 and can save substantial time and expense when the estate is modest.
Larger estates require probate. With no will naming an executor, the probate court appoints a personal representative, sometimes called an administrator, to manage the estate. The appointment can happen informally through an application to the court registrar, or formally through a petition that requires notice to interested parties and a hearing. The personal representative collects the assets, has them appraised, pays valid debts and taxes, and distributes what is left to the heirs identified under the intestate rules. Heirs receive their shares only after all valid claims against the estate have been paid.