When someone dies without a will in Colorado, state law takes over the decision of who gets what. It doesn’t matter what the person verbally promised, what family members expected, or who actually needed the money most. Colorado’s default rules apply, and they often surprise people.

Understanding how this works can help you make sense of a difficult situation or motivate you to put a plan in place before one is needed.

What “Dying Intestate” Means

When someone dies without a valid will, they’re said to have died “intestate.” That’s just the legal term for no will. Colorado’s intestate succession laws — found in Title 15, Article 11 of the Colorado Revised Statutes — then determine exactly how the deceased person’s assets are divided.

Think of it as the state writing a generic will on your behalf. It follows a fixed formula, regardless of your actual relationships or wishes.

Who Inherits, and in What Order

Colorado’s intestate succession rules work through a priority system based on family relationships. Here’s how it generally plays out.

If you’re married with no children, or with children only from your current marriage (and your spouse has no children from another relationship), your spouse inherits everything. Simple enough.

Things get more complicated in blended families. If you have children from a prior relationship, your spouse doesn’t automatically get everything. Under Colorado law, your spouse would receive the first $221,000 of the estate (this number adjusts annually) plus half of whatever remains, and your children from the previous relationship inherit the rest. That can leave a surviving spouse in a genuinely difficult financial position, especially if the estate isn’t large.

If there’s no spouse at all, the children inherit equally. No children? The estate passes to your parents. No parents? To your siblings. Colorado’s law keeps searching down the family line for a living relative. If none can be found, the estate eventually “escheats” — meaning it goes to the state.

The People Colorado Law Leaves Out

This is where intestate succession tends to surprise people most.

If you’ve lived with a partner for 10, 20, or 30 years but were never legally married, that partner has no automatic inheritance rights under Colorado law. None. No matter how long you were together or how intertwined your lives were, an unmarried partner is treated the same as a stranger under the state’s default rules.

Stepchildren are in a similar position. Unless you formally adopt them, your stepchildren have no right to inherit from you through intestate succession.

Colorado does offer one option for unmarried partners: a designated beneficiary agreement. This is a specific legal document — governed by Colorado statute — that allows two unmarried adults to grant each other inheritance rights. It must be signed, notarized, and recorded with the county clerk. But it’s not automatic, and it’s not a substitute for a full estate plan.

What Happens Practically and Why Having a Will Matters

Even without a will, most estates still go through probate, the court-supervised process of paying debts and distributing assets. Without a will naming a personal representative (also called an executor), the court appoints one — typically a spouse or adult child, but not necessarily the person you would have chosen.

If minor children are involved, it gets more complicated. A court may need to appoint a conservator to manage any assets they inherit, and the funds are often held in a supervised account until the children turn 18. Your surviving spouse may have to petition the court just to access those funds. And without a will, you’ve also lost the ability to name a guardian for your children — that decision falls to the court as well.

A will doesn’t have to be complicated. It simply puts you in control of these decisions, rather than leaving them to a one-size-fits-all state formula.

Your Next Step

Estate planning doesn’t have to be complicated or expensive. We’ll walk you through exactly what you need and give you clear, flat-fee pricing before you commit to anything.

Ready to put a plan in place? Schedule a free consultation, and let’s build the right documents for your goals.

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This website includes information about legal issues. Such materials are for informational purposes only and may not reflect the most current legal developments. These informational materials are not intended, and should not be taken, as legal advice on any particular set of facts or circumstances. You should contact an attorney for advice on your specific legal problems.