Colorado

Colorado estates go to the District Court of the county where the deceased lived — except in
Denver, which has a separate Probate Court. Colorado has adopted the Uniform Probate Code, and
the routes mirror it.

Informal, formal, and unsupervised

• Informal probate is decided by a registrar on the paperwork, with no hearing. It is the
  normal route where the will is clear and nobody objects.
• Formal probate goes before a judge, and is used where the will is unclear or missing, the
  heirs are in dispute, or something needs deciding.
• Either way, administration is usually unsupervised — the personal representative acts
  without returning to court for approval at each step. Supervised administration must be
  requested.

Colorado accepts three kinds of will

Most states offer two. Colorado's execution statute recognises a will that is:
- witnessed by two people, or
- acknowledged by the testator before a notary public, with no witnesses at all, or
- holographic, where the signature and material portions are in the testator's handwriting.

The notarised route is unusual — only a handful of states allow it — and it is a genuinely useful
option for someone who cannot easily assemble two witnesses.

Smaller estates

Where there is no real property and the personal property falls under the statutory ceiling, a
small estate affidavit collects the assets with no court involvement. Confirm the current
figure, which is adjusted for inflation.

No state death tax

Colorado levies neither an estate nor an inheritance tax. Only the federal return can arise.

Before distributing

Publish the notice to creditors, let the claim period run, file the final income tax returns, and
close with a verified statement.

Colorado is one of the most flexible states in the country about how a will may be executed. The
testator must be 18 or older and of sound mind, the will must be in writing and signed
by the testator — and then any one of three routes will do.

Witnessed

Signed by two people who witnessed the signing or the testator's acknowledgement of it, and
who sign within a reasonable time afterwards.

Notarised — no witnesses needed

Colorado allows a will to be acknowledged by the testator before a notary public instead of
being witnessed. Very few states permit this. If you can reach a notary but not two disinterested
witnesses, this route produces a fully valid will.

Holographic

A will is valid whether or not witnessed if the signature and the material portions are
in the testator's own handwriting. The rest may be printed, so a pre-printed form with the gifts
written in by hand can qualify. Colorado does not require a date — but write one anyway,
because an undated holographic will is exactly the document that starts an argument about which
version came last.

Practical points

• Name an alternate personal representative and ask for unsupervised administration with
  no bond.
• Consider a beneficiary deed for real estate, which is available in Colorado and passes a
  property outside probate.
• A surviving spouse has an elective share whatever the will says.
• Review after a marriage, divorce, birth or a move to Colorado — and note that a will valid where
  it was made will usually be honoured here, though the reverse is emphatically not true of a
  Colorado notarised will taken to a stricter state.

Yes. A Colorado personal representative is entitled to reasonable compensation for
services performed. Colorado prescribes no percentage and no tariff.

What "reasonable" turns on

The size and nature of the estate, the time actually spent, the complexity and difficulty of the
work, the skill it required, any special expertise brought to it, the responsibility assumed, and
the results achieved. A large estate of index funds does not justify a large fee simply because
the number is large.

Records, not percentages

With no statutory schedule, contemporaneous time records decide the outcome. Keep dated
entries of what was done and how long it took, from the first week. A representative who proposes
a percentage and cannot evidence the work is poorly placed if anyone objects.

Nobody checks as you go

Under unsupervised administration — the Colorado norm — there is no court review of the fee
unless an interested person asks for one. That is not approval, only absence of scrutiny. Any
interested person may petition the court to review compensation after the fact, and the burden of
showing it was reasonable sits with the representative.

Agree the figure in writing with the beneficiaries before taking it. In an unsupervised
estate that agreement is the only approval that exists.

If the will fixes the figure

A will provision governs. The representative may also renounce the will's figure before
qualifying and take reasonable compensation instead — worth knowing where the sum was set long
ago.

Tax

Compensation is taxable income; an inheritance is not. With no Colorado estate or inheritance
tax for a fee to be deducted against, a family representative who is also a beneficiary usually
gains nothing by taking one. Ask an accountant.

A Colorado personal representative is reimbursed from the estate for the reasonable expenses
of administration, separately from compensation for their time.

Normally claimable

• Funeral, burial or cremation, the headstone, and a reasonable reception.
• District Court filing fees, certified letters, certified death certificates, and publication of
  the notice to creditors.
• Attorney's fees, and accountant's fees for the final Form 1040 and any Form 1041.
• Appraisals of real property, ranch land, water rights, vehicles, firearms and collections.
  Water rights in particular need a specialist valuation and are easy to overlook.
• Carrying costs on estate property until sale: insurance, property tax, utilities, security,
  maintenance, landscaping and snow removal.
• Wildfire mitigation and defensible-space clearing on mountain or foothills property, and
  winterising a property at altitude so the pipes survive. Both are preservation costs, not
  improvements.
• Homeowners' association assessments, which continue regardless.
• Cleaning, clearing, storing, moving and shipping contents, including a mountain property.
• Travel on estate business at a reasonable rate — Colorado distances and mountain passes make
  mileage a real line.
• Bond premiums where bond was not waived.

Normally not claimable

• The representative's lost wages, meals near home, or personal spending.
• Costs run up for one beneficiary's convenience rather than the estate's.
• Improvements beyond preparing a property for sale as it stands.
• Anything without a receipt.

The rule that decides it

Open an estate bank account and run everything through it. Under unsupervised administration
your own ledger is the only account that will ever exist — and it has to answer a question asked
two years later.

Colorado's informal, unsupervised default means most estates here are administered comfortably by
a family member with a lawyer retained for the filings. A bank trust department or an attorney
serving as personal representative is worth the cost in narrower cases.

Consider a professional when

• The estate holds ranch land, water rights, or mineral and royalty interests. Colorado water
  law is its own discipline and a water right is frequently the most valuable and least understood
  asset in the estate.
• There is an operating business or rental property, including short-term-let property in a
  resort county, which needs managing rather than just transferring.
• The will is holographic or notarised without witnesses, and someone is likely to question
  it. Colorado's flexibility about execution is a gift to the testator and occasionally an
  invitation to the disappointed.
• There is conflict among the beneficiaries, or a will contest looks likely — which moves the
  estate from informal to formal proceedings and changes the cost.
• A beneficiary is a minor or incapacitated, so a trust runs for years.
• The named representative lives out of state and cannot deal with a mountain property that
  needs physical attention through the winter.

What it costs

Corporate fiduciaries charge a negotiated percentage with a minimum annual fee. Attorneys
generally bill hourly. Because Colorado prescribes no percentage, ask precisely what the basis
will be, in writing.

Middle ground

Appoint a family member, ask for unsupervised administration without bond, and let them
retain a probate attorney at the estate's expense.

A named representative who does not want the job can decline before appointment.