Probate in Colorado: do you need a lawyer, and what it costs

Settling an estate in Colorado

What an executor deals with after the funeral: the will, the court, creditors, tax and closing the estate. Each fact links to the statute it comes from and shows the date we last read it.

Filing the original will

In Colorado, whoever holds the original will must deliver it to the court in the county where the person who died lived, within 10 days after the death or as soon as they learn of it. The court keeps it on file (called lodging) even if no one opens probate, and a person who willfully fails to deliver it can be held liable for the harm it causes.

Colo. Rev. Stat. § 15-11-516Read the statute text · colorado.public.lawchecked Oct 5, 2026

Which court handles probate

In Colorado, probate is handled by the district court in the county where the person who died lived, except in Denver, which has its own Probate Court. If they lived out of state, it can be opened in any Colorado county where they owned property.

Colo. Rev. Stat. §§ 15-12-201, 15-10-201(10)Read the statute text · colorado.public.lawchecked Oct 5, 2026

Creditors' deadline to make claims

In Colorado, unless a year has already passed since the death, the executor or administrator (called the personal representative) must publish a notice to creditors once a week for three weeks in a local newspaper. Creditors then have at least four months from the first publication to file a claim, and claims from before the death are barred one year after the death in any case.

Colo. Rev. Stat. §§ 15-12-801, 15-12-803Read the statute text · colorado.public.lawchecked Oct 5, 2026

Estate inventory

In Colorado, the executor or administrator must prepare a sworn inventory of what the person who died owned, with fair market values as of the date of death and any debts secured on each item, within three months of being appointed. You send a copy to interested people who ask, or you can file it with the court instead.

Colo. Rev. Stat. § 15-12-706Read the statute text · colorado.public.lawchecked Oct 5, 2026

The order estate debts are paid

In Colorado, debts are paid in a set order: property the person who died held for others as a trustee comes out first, then the costs of running the estate, then reasonable funeral costs, then debts and taxes the federal government puts first, then last-illness medical bills, then debts and taxes Colorado law puts first, then Medicaid repayment, then public assistance overpayments, then unpaid child support, and finally everything else.

Colo. Rev. Stat. § 15-12-805Read the statute text · colorado.public.lawchecked Oct 5, 2026

State estate and inheritance tax

Colorado has no inheritance tax, and its estate tax no longer collects anything because it equals a federal credit that has ended. Only the federal estate tax can apply, and only to very large estates.

Colo. Rev. Stat. §§ 39-23.5-102, 39-23.5-103Read the statute text · colorado.public.lawchecked Oct 5, 2026

Closing an estate

In Colorado, most estates are closed by the executor or administrator filing a sworn closing statement with the court, no earlier than six months after the first appointment or one year after the death, whichever comes first. The statement says all claims, expenses and taxes are settled, the property has been distributed, and everyone entitled got a copy and a written accounting. If no one brings a case within one year, the role ends.

Colo. Rev. Stat. § 15-12-1003Read the statute text · colorado.public.lawchecked Oct 5, 2026