Probate & Estate Administration

Common questions

I’ve been named personal representative. What do I actually have to do?

Retain counsel. Many people are entirely capable of discharging the responsibilities themselves. But at a difficult moment, attending to court deadlines, notices, publications, and creditors tends to displace grieving. An attorney keeps the deadlines, notifies the creditors, and collects the assets efficiently. A personal representative steps into the shoes of a fiduciary. The Colorado Probate Code directs that the estate be settled and distributed expeditiously and efficiently. C.R.S. § 15-12-703. In practice that means serving as investment adviser, banker, and accountant for everything the decedent left behind, assets and debts alike. We are regularly called by personal representatives facing threats, or actual claims, that they erred in the accounting, overlooked assets, distributed unfairly, failed to notify creditors, or left an estate open for years. Counsel is how you comply with the process from beginning to end.

How long does probate take in Colorado?

A minimum of six months. C.R.S. § 15-12-1003 (an estate may not be closed by sworn statement earlier than six months after the appointment of the original personal representative). People arriving from other states are often surprised to hear it, having heard of probate running for years. Colorado offers an efficient alternative known as informal probate, C.R.S. § 15-12-301 et seq., which proceeds without direct court supervision unless an interested person asks the court to intervene. Most of the six months is spent waiting rather than working.

Do we have to go through probate at all?

Often, no. Effective planning generally avoids it. Where a trust exists and assets are either held in its name or carry a designated beneficiary, there is usually nothing left to administer. Avoiding probate is among the principal reasons we recommend a trust alongside a will. Even without a trust, beneficiary designations can dispose of every asset. Account designations are the simplest. Real estate designations are frequently the most complex. Colorado also provides collection by affidavit for small estates. C.R.S. § 15-12-1201. Where the property subject to disposition consists of personal property alone and its value, net of liens and encumbrances, does not exceed an inflation-indexed ceiling — less than six figures in the mid-2020s — a successor may collect it by sworn affidavit ten days after death, without a probate case being opened.

I think the personal representative is mishandling the estate.

Colorado law entitles beneficiaries and other interested persons to request a full accounting, both of what the estate holds and of what the personal representative has spent administering it. Those records ordinarily make clear whether the estate is being handled properly.

If you are not receiving them, demand them. If you have demanded them and they have not arrived, you will likely need counsel to obtain them.

Where the records are withheld, or where they disclose waste or mismanagement, you may be entitled to have the personal representative removed.

The will doesn’t say what I was told it said.

People do change their estate plans, and it can come as a shock to family members and beneficiaries. Others simply neglect to update them. A will must be valid to be binding, and Colorado law sets requirements for validity. C.R.S. §§ 15-11-501 to 15-11-503. Where the document presented is not a valid will — for want of due execution or testamentary capacity, or by reason of undue influence — the probate must be contested. Contests proceed as formal testacy proceedings, in which the statute allocates the burdens of proof. C.R.S. § 15-12-407.

Have a different question? Our attorneys have answered dozens more in Resources.