Without a will, a statute decides who inherits. The dollar thresholds in it move every year, and most published versions quote figures well below the current ones.
Having a comprehensive estate plan in place, and checking in on it regularly while still healthy, substantially improves the chances that what you built is distributed the way you intended. Without one, intestate succession applies instead.
Those rules dictate how an estate is distributed whether or not the result is what the decedent wanted. They are not unreasonable, but they are rigid.
What Are Colorado’s Intestate Laws?
The Colorado General Assembly indicates that Colorado’s intestate laws are designed to identify any relatives left behind after a person passes away and determine who is closest to the decedent. Those individuals are then awarded all or a portion of the estate.
Where a spouse survives, the share depends on the family situation, and the statute adds a tie-breaker worth knowing. Where more than one circumstance applies, the one producing the largest share for the surviving spouse is used.1 That comes up most often in blended families.
The dollar thresholds in this section are not fixed. They are adjusted for cost of living and set by the year of death, and the Department of Revenue publishes the adjusted table each year before February 1.2 The figures below are for deaths in 2026, with the statutory base amounts in brackets.
Relatives That Qualify for Estate Distribution Under Colorado Intestate Laws
Spouses
Children here includes grandchildren and other descendants, which is the word the statute uses. When a spouse survives and there are no descendants and no surviving parents, the spouse takes everything.
When there are no descendants but a parent of the decedent survives, the spouse takes the first four hundred and forty-two thousand dollars, base three hundred thousand. The spouse also takes three-quarters of the balance, and the remaining quarter goes to the surviving parent or parents.
When a spouse survives and all of the decedent’s children are also the spouse’s, and the spouse has no other children, the spouse takes everything.
A different figure applies where all of the decedent’s children are also the spouse’s, but the spouse has children from another relationship. The spouse takes the first three hundred and thirty-two thousand dollars, base two hundred and twenty-five thousand. The spouse also takes half the balance, and the decedent’s descendants take the other half.
When the decedent has children who are not the spouse’s, the spouse takes the first two hundred and twenty-one thousand dollars, base one hundred and fifty thousand. The spouse also takes half the balance, and the decedent’s descendants take the rest.
Designated beneficiaries
Colorado lets two adults sign a designated beneficiary agreement. Where it grants the right to inherit, the designated beneficiary takes the whole intestate estate if the decedent left no descendants, and half if descendants survive.3 Every other tier below comes after this one.
Parents
When the decedent leaves no spouse, designated beneficiary, or descendants, the parents take the estate. If one parent has died, that parent’s other descendants, such as the decedent’s half-siblings, can share with the surviving parent.
Siblings
If the decedent left no spouse, designated beneficiary, descendants, or parents, the estate passes to the parents’ descendants, meaning siblings. Nieces and nephews can inherit where a sibling has died.
Children
Adopted children are legal heirs and inherit exactly as a biological child would. A child being adopted by a married couple when one spouse dies is treated as adopted by that spouse, where the adoption is afterwards granted to the surviving spouse.4
Foster children are generally not heirs, because they were never formally adopted into the family. Colorado does recognise equitable adoption in narrow cases, where a child was raised under an agreement to adopt that was never completed.5
A stepchild who was not adopted does not inherit from a stepparent. That changes where a Colorado adoption was underway when the stepparent died. The child is treated as adopted so long as the child’s parent survives the stepparent by one hundred and twenty hours.
A child of the decedent adopted by someone else generally stops being the decedent’s heir. The main exceptions are adoption by a stepparent, where the child can still inherit from both genetic parents, and adoption by a relative.
Biological children are heirs, including a child in gestation at the death who survives one hundred and twenty hours after birth. Every heir has to outlive the decedent by one hundred and twenty hours.6
A child of the decedent born to someone the decedent was not married to is an heir on the same terms. Marriage is not the test.
Grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins
This tier is easy to miss and it is the reason escheat is rare. Where no spouse, designated beneficiary, descendant, parent, or descendant of a parent survives, the estate passes to grandparents and their descendants.7 That reaches aunts, uncles, and cousins.
No relatives at all
Only when there is no taker under any of those tiers does the estate pass to the state.8 A charity never inherits under intestacy, and a friend inherits only through a designated beneficiary agreement.
Working out who inherits?
The dollar thresholds depend on the year of death, so the answer changes with the date. Schedule a free consultation with Johnson Law Group and we will work through where the estate actually lands.
Why the Numbers Matter More Than People Expect
On a small estate the tiers rarely bite, because the spouse takes the whole of a figure that exceeds the estate. On a mid-sized estate they decide the split.
Take a four hundred thousand dollar estate with a surviving spouse and a child from the decedent’s earlier relationship. Under the current figure the spouse takes two hundred and twenty-one thousand plus half the balance, and under the stale base figure the answer is different by tens of thousands.
That is why the year of death matters, and why any summary quoting a bare figure without a year should be checked.
What Planning Changes
Intestacy is a default, not a penalty. It distributes an estate competently to the people the legislature expects you to have wanted, which is often close and occasionally very wrong.
A will directs the distribution. Beneficiary designations, joint ownership, and a funded trust move assets outside the process entirely.
Incapacity is the part people leave out. Without powers of attorney and medical directives, a family may need a Colorado guardianship or conservatorship while the person is still alive.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does my spouse automatically inherit everything in Colorado?
Only in some situations. A surviving spouse takes the whole estate where there are no descendants and no surviving parents. The same applies where every child of the decedent is also the spouse’s and the spouse has no others.
What are the current dollar figures?
They are adjusted for cost of living and fixed by the year of death, and the Department of Revenue publishes the table each year before February 1. For deaths in 2026 the tiers are reported as four hundred and forty-two thousand, three hundred and thirty-two thousand, and two hundred and twenty-one thousand.
Do stepchildren inherit?
Generally no. A stepchild who was not adopted does not inherit from a stepparent. The exception is an adoption already underway when the stepparent died, if the child’s parent survives the stepparent by one hundred and twenty hours.
What happens if there is no close family?
The estate does not go to the state straight away. It passes to grandparents and their descendants first, which reaches aunts, uncles, and cousins. It passes to the state only if there is no taker at all.
Can a friend or charity inherit without a will?
Not unless the friend holds a designated beneficiary agreement granting the right to inherit. Otherwise intestacy distributes only to relatives the statute identifies, and a charity receives nothing without a will or other written instrument.
Speak With a Colorado Attorney
Intestacy is workable and it is a blunt instrument. Whether it produces the right answer for your family is worth knowing before it is the only answer available.
You can read about the background and experience of the attorneys on our team. You can find our offices in Denver, Colorado Springs, Commerce City, Englewood, and Fort Collins.
Johnson Law Group works with families across Colorado. Schedule a free consultation to talk through what your estate would do without instructions.
Sources
[2] C.R.S. § 15-10-112 – cost of living adjustment of the probate dollar amounts; the Department of Revenue publishes the cumulative table for each year of death | https://colorado.public.law/statutes/crs_15-10-112 | https://tax.colorado.gov/
[3] C.R.S. § 15-11-102.5 – share of a designated beneficiary; a person holding the right to inherit under a designated beneficiary agreement takes the entire intestate estate where the decedent left no descendants, and one-half where descendants survive. C.R.S. § 15-11-103 is titled share of heirs other than surviving spouse and designated beneficiary, so every other tier comes after | https://colorado.public.law/statutes/crs_15-11-102_5
[4] C.R.S. § 15-11-119, with C.R.S. § 15-11-118 – adoptee and adoptee’s genetic parents, and parent-child relationship; a child being adopted by a parent’s spouse when that spouse dies is treated as adopted if the parent survives the deceased spouse by one hundred and twenty hours, and an adoptee keeps an inheritance link to a genetic parent in the stepparent, relative, and deceased-parents cases | https://colorado.public.law/statutes/crs_15-11-119
[5] C.R.S. § 15-11-122 – equitable adoption; the article does not limit the right of a person to inherit by virtue of equitable adoption | https://colorado.public.law/statutes/crs_15-11-122
[6] C.R.S. § 15-11-104 – requirement of survival by one hundred twenty hours and individual in gestation | https://colorado.public.law/statutes/crs_15-11-104
[7] C.R.S. § 15-11-103 – shares of heirs other than the surviving spouse and designated beneficiary; the estate passes to descendants, then parents and the descendants of a deceased parent, then descendants of parents, then grandparents and their descendants | https://colorado.public.law/statutes/crs_15-11-103
[8] C.R.S. § 15-11-105 – if there is no taker under the intestacy provisions, the intestate estate passes to the state | https://colorado.public.law/statutes/crs_15-11-105