Most Denver families assume the same thing: if something happens to them, their spouse gets everything. It’s a reasonable assumption. It’s also frequently wrong. Colorado law has its own formula for who inherits when someone dies without a valid will, and that formula was written for the average family. It doesn’t account for your blended household, your unmarried partner, your stepchildren, or the nephew you’ve been quietly supporting for years.
At Frost & Beck, PC, we work with Denver Metro and Boulder families on estate planning and family law matters, and one of the most common things we hear is some version of “I’ve been meaning to get around to it.” This post is for those families. Not to alarm, but to be specific about what Colorado law actually does when there’s no plan in place.
What Intestate Succession Means & Why It Applies to You
Dying without a valid will is legally called dying intestate. When that happens, Colorado’s intestate succession laws under Title 15, Article 11 of the Colorado Revised Statutes take over. Those statutes determine who inherits, in what proportions, and who manages the estate through the court process. Your wishes (spoken or assumed) play no legal role.
Intestate succession applies only to your probate estate: property held solely in your name with no beneficiary designation and no survivorship rights. Life insurance with a named beneficiary, IRAs and 401(k)s, jointly held real estate, payable-on-death bank accounts, transfer-on-death deeds, and assets held in a living trust all pass outside this system regardless of what Colorado’s intestate statutes say. How much of your estate the law actually controls depends entirely on how much of it is probate property.
There’s also a timing rule most people don’t know about. Under C.R.S. 15-11-104, a person must survive you by at least 120 hours to inherit under Colorado’s intestate statutes. This survivorship period exists to prevent assets from bouncing through two estates in rapid succession after a simultaneous accident or shared illness.
Who Inherits & Who Gets Left Out
Colorado’s inheritance hierarchy begins with your surviving spouse and descendants. But the spouse doesn’t automatically receive everything. The exact share depends on two questions: do you have surviving descendants, and are those descendants also your spouse’s descendants? In a blended family, where at least one child is yours but not your spouse’s, the formula divides the estate in ways that routinely surprise people.
The dollar thresholds built into the spousal share formula are adjusted annually based on the consumer price index, which means figures quoted in many online resources are likely outdated. It’s worth confirming current amounts with a Colorado estate attorney before drawing any conclusions about what a surviving spouse would actually receive.
People commonly left out by intestate law despite close relationships include:
- Unmarried partners of any duration, no matter how long the relationship
- Stepchildren who were never legally adopted
- Close friends the decedent considered family
- Charitable organizations the decedent supported during their lifetime
None of these relationships appear in Colorado’s inheritance formula. Without a will, they inherit nothing from the probate estate.
The Problem Is Worse for Parents: Guardianship & Minor Inheritances
For parents of minor children, dying without a will creates two separate problems, and most people only think about one of them.
Guardianship Without a Will
Without a will nominating a guardian, a Colorado court appoints one based on the child’s best interest. The court considers input from family members, but the decision ultimately rests with a judge who has never met your child and has no written record of your preferences. A will is the only document where you formally nominate the person you want raising your children if you can’t.
How Minor Children Receive an Inheritance
Under intestate succession, a minor child’s inheritance is typically held in a court-supervised conservatorship and distributed outright at age 18. No trustee. No conditions. No mechanism for spreading distributions over time or tying them to education, health, or other purposes. Whatever the child inherits arrives as a lump sum when they turn 18, whether or not that’s what you would have chosen. A trust created alongside a will is the only tool that controls how and when an inheritance actually reaches a child.
What Happens to the Estate in Probate
Most intestate estates in Denver go through probate. Denver County probate matters are filed with the Denver Probate Court at the City and County Building, 1437 Bannock St, Room 230, Denver, CO 80202. Informal probate in Denver County typically closes in 6 to 12 months, with a mandatory creditor claim period of 4 months from the date of first publication.
Smaller estates may qualify for a simpler process. Estates with personal property valued at $86,000 or less (the 2025 threshold, adjusted annually under C.R.S. 15-12-1201) and no real property can often be settled through a small estate affidavit using Colorado form JDF 999, bypassing full court administration entirely.
One fact most online resources skip: Colorado has no state estate tax and no inheritance tax. Only the federal estate tax applies, and it affects only very large estates. For the vast majority of Denver families, taxes aren’t the reason to delay planning, and they aren’t a reason to skip it either.
One Option Many Miss: Colorado’s Designated Beneficiary Agreement
Unmarried couples often assume Colorado law leaves them with no options short of a full estate plan. That’s not quite right. Under C.R.S. 15-11-102.5, two unmarried adults who aren’t in a civil union can execute a designated beneficiary agreement, recorded with the county clerk, that allows them to inherit from each other under intestate succession. If the designated beneficiary dies with no descendants, the surviving partner inherits the entire intestate estate. If there are descendants, the survivor inherits one-half.
This isn’t a substitute for a comprehensive estate plan. It doesn’t address guardianship, specific asset distribution, or trustee oversight for children. But for unmarried couples who haven’t yet executed a will or trust, it’s a meaningful legal protection that most people don’t know exists.
What a Will Actually Gives You Control Over
A will lets you name the person who manages your estate (called a personal representative) rather than having a court make that selection. It lets you designate a guardian for your minor children, direct specific assets to named individuals or organizations, and set conditions on when and how beneficiaries receive what you leave them.
Equally important is what sits outside the will. Beneficiary designations on retirement accounts, life insurance, and transfer-on-death accounts operate independently of it. An outdated designation (one that still names an ex-spouse or a deceased parent) can redirect an asset straight back into the probate estate, where Colorado’s intestate formula takes over. Reviewing those designations regularly is as important as drafting the will itself.
For families who want to avoid probate altogether, a revocable living trust used alongside a will can keep assets titled in the trust from going through court administration at all. That means faster distribution, no public record of what you owned or who received it, and less court involvement for your family during an already difficult time.
A Formula Can’t Know Your Family
Colorado’s intestate succession law isn’t a bad law. It’s a reasonable default for families with no plan. But it was written for a general case, and families aren’t general. The law doesn’t know that you’d want your partner of twelve years to keep the house. It doesn’t know that your daughter is more financially steady than your son. It doesn’t know which sibling you’d trust with your children’s upbringing. Those things only make it into the legal record when you put them there.
If you’re ready to build a plan that reflects what you actually want for the people you care about, we’re here to help. Reach our team at (720) 330-4623.