Picture this: You die in Colorado. You’ve got a ski cabin in Summit County — you bought it back when you could actually afford one — and you’ve been paying off the mortgage for ten years. You’re also on your second marriage. You’ve got two kids from marriage one, a stepkid from your spouse’s first marriage, and a current spouse who assumed the cabin was theirs.
Now you’re dead. No will. And Colorado’s intestacy law has just discovered that your ski cabin has, depending on interpretation, three potential legal ownership groups who all hate each other. Your spouse, your two kids from the first marriage, and potentially your first spouse’s attorney are all going to get very familiar with Colorado’s Uniform Probate Code. The ski season is happening without anyone getting to use the cabin because the estate is frozen.
Welcome to dying intestate in the Centennial State.
Colorado’s Intestate Succession Law
Colorado adopted the Uniform Probate Code (UPC), which means it follows modernized intestacy rules that differ from many traditional states. The relevant statutes are in Colorado Revised Statutes § 15-11-101 et seq.
The UPC rules are more nuanced than flat percentage splits — they attempt to reflect what most people actually want, which works fine for simple family situations and breaks down badly for complex ones.
If You’re Married With Children
This is where the UPC’s “who are these kids?” distinction matters:
- If all your children are also your spouse’s children: Your spouse inherits everything. The UPC correctly guesses that in a nuclear family, you’d want your spouse to take it all.
- If you have children who are NOT your current spouse’s children (i.e., kids from a prior relationship): Your spouse gets the first $150,000 of the estate plus one-half of the remainder. Your children from the prior relationship split the other half equally.
So if you die with a $450,000 estate (that ski cabin, paid off), your spouse gets $150,000 + $150,000 = $300,000. Your two kids from marriage one split $150,000 — $75,000 each. Is that what you wanted? Maybe. Probably not, actually. The point is you didn’t get to choose.
If You’re Married With No Children
Your spouse inherits everything unless your parents are alive. If you have a surviving parent and no children, your spouse still gets everything — the UPC in Colorado doesn’t give parents any share if there’s a surviving spouse. Clean and relatively sensible.
If You’re Not Married and Have No Children
Colorado works up the ladder: parents first (equally split), then siblings, then descendants of siblings (nieces and nephews), then grandparents, then more distant relatives. No relatives at all? The estate goes to the state.
The Blended Family Reality Check
Colorado’s UPC rules are clearer than many states but still produce results that surprise blended families. If you’ve got a current spouse, kids from a previous relationship, and stepkids who aren’t legally yours, the distribution plays out purely by biology and legal adoption — not by emotional reality. Your stepkids get nothing from your estate by default. Your biological kids from marriage one share the estate with your current spouse. Your current spouse doesn’t get it all.
A will is the only tool that lets you reflect actual family relationships rather than biological ones.
What Probate Looks Like in Colorado
Colorado probate is handled by the District Court in the county where you lived when you died. Colorado’s UPC adoption means it offers both informal and formal probate proceedings.
Informal Probate: For uncomplicated, uncontested estates, Colorado’s informal probate is genuinely more streamlined than many states. A personal representative (executor) can be appointed relatively quickly, and the process can move efficiently.
Formal Probate: Required when there are disputes, missing heirs, or complex assets. This is the longer, court-supervised path.
Timeline: Informal probate in Colorado can be wrapped up in 6 to 12 months for simple estates. Formal or contested proceedings take 12 to 24 months or longer.
Small Estates — Collection by Affidavit: Colorado allows a simplified affidavit procedure for small estates where the total personal property value doesn’t exceed $82,000 (adjusted periodically for inflation). Real estate doesn’t qualify for this shortcut. If your estate is primarily real estate, you’re going through standard probate.
Costs: Colorado probate costs include:
- District Court filing fees (typically a few hundred dollars)
- Personal representative fees (modest, but real)
- Attorney fees (not statutorily capped; negotiated, typically 2–4% of estate value)
- Appraisal and publication costs
For a $400,000 estate, you might spend $12,000–$20,000 on probate. That’s before any contested proceedings.
Colorado-Specific Quirks
Not a Community Property State (But There’s a Catch)
Colorado is not a community property state, so assets you own individually remain individually owned. However, Colorado does have a Uniform Disposition of Community Property Act — if you moved to Colorado from a community property state (like California) and brought community property with you, Colorado will treat it as community property for inheritance purposes.
This trips up people who relocated from California, Arizona, New Mexico, or other community property states. The property you thought you owned individually might still have community property characteristics under Colorado law.
The UPC’s Flexible Probate Options
Colorado’s UPC adoption means significantly more flexibility in how estates are administered. Informal probate proceedings don’t require constant court appearances. Personal representatives have broad authority to manage and distribute assets. For cooperative families, this can make Colorado probate faster and cheaper than states with more rigid systems.
No State Estate or Inheritance Tax
Colorado has no state estate tax and no state inheritance tax. Your heirs get what’s left after federal tax exposure — and for most people, the federal estate tax exemption ($13.99 million in 2026 for individuals) means federal taxes aren’t a concern either.
Homestead Protections
Colorado has homestead exemption laws that protect some equity in your primary residence from creditor claims. Even in probate, a surviving spouse or minor children may be entitled to a homestead allowance. This doesn’t fix an intestacy distribution problem, but it does provide some floor of protection for the family home.
How to Avoid This Mess
Dying without a will in Colorado means the UPC’s intestacy ladder runs your estate. Blended families get sliced by statute. Stepchildren get nothing. Your spouse might share with your kids from a previous relationship in proportions nobody agreed to. The ski cabin that was supposed to be your family’s legacy becomes a contested asset in district court.
You already know the solution.
Killswitch creates a legally valid will in all 50 states — including Colorado — for $69. You choose who gets the ski cabin. You specify whether your stepkids inherit. You decide if your spouse gets everything or if you want to ensure your kids from the first marriage have their own provision.
You write it down. Colorado follows your instructions instead of its own.
Sixty-nine dollars. Online. No district court involvement. No attorney billing at $400/hour to explain the UPC to your grieving family.
Make your will at Killswitch →
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: If I die without a will in Colorado and my spouse and kids are both mine and my spouse’s kids, does my spouse get everything?
Yes. Under Colorado’s UPC-based intestacy law, if all your descendants are also descendants of your surviving spouse (i.e., you have children together and no children from other relationships), your surviving spouse inherits your entire estate. This is one scenario where dying without a will in Colorado doesn’t produce a terrible outcome — but it only works for simple nuclear families.
Q: My kids are from a prior marriage. How does Colorado intestacy split my estate?
If you have children who are not your current spouse’s children, Colorado gives your spouse the first $150,000 of your estate plus half of the remainder. Your children from the prior relationship split the other half equally. Stepchildren (who you haven’t legally adopted) get nothing automatically.
Q: Does Colorado have simplified probate for small estates?
Yes. Colorado allows a “collection by affidavit” procedure for personal property estates worth $82,000 or less (the threshold is adjusted periodically). Real property doesn’t qualify for this shortcut and still requires standard probate proceedings. If your estate is primarily real estate — like a mountain cabin — expect full probate.
Q: I moved to Colorado from California. Does California community property affect my Colorado estate?
It can. Colorado has adopted the Uniform Disposition of Community Property Act, which means property you acquired as community property while living in California retains its community property character in Colorado. If you die without a will, your half of that community property passes by Colorado intestacy, but your spouse already owns their half outright. An estate planning attorney can help you identify which of your assets might still have community property characteristics.
Q: How do I prevent my stepchildren from being cut out of my estate?
Stepchildren have no automatic inheritance rights in Colorado — they’re not in the intestacy line unless you’ve legally adopted them. A will is the only way to include them. At Killswitch, you can specify exactly what you want each person to receive, including stepchildren. Without a will, they get nothing regardless of how close your relationship was.
