Settle a small estate in Colorado without probate

Collection of Personal Property by Affidavit (JDF 999)

Affidavit to collect a debt secured by real estate (C.R.S. 15-12-1201(3.5))

Small estates summary administrative procedure

What counts toward the limit in Colorado

Add up the fair market value, on the date of death, of everything the person owned that passes by will or by state inheritance law, wherever it is, and subtract liens and encumbrances. Real estate is counted in this total even though the affidavit cannot transfer it. Property that passes another way (joint ownership with survivorship, pay-on-death or transfer-on-death, beneficiary designation, beneficiary deed, trust) is not counted.

Law: C.R.S. 15-12-1201(1)(a)

In this state the total is counted after subtracting liens.

Source: Official page

Car or vehicle title after a death in Colorado

The DMV does not accept the court form JDF 999; it uses its own small estate affidavit, DR 2712. Take the signed and notarized DR 2712 and the death certificate to your county motor vehicle office. All title transfers are done at the county motor vehicle office. If the title is in joint tenancy with right of survivorship, the surviving owner brings a copy of the death certificate. If the owner completed form DR 2009 naming a beneficiary, the beneficiary brings the death certificate, DR 2009 and an application for title (DR 2395).

Law: C.R.S. 15-12-1201(3), 42-6-110.5; DMV forms DR 2712, DR 2009

Agency

Colorado Department of Revenue, Division of Motor Vehicles (title work at the county motor vehicle office)

Form

DR 2712 State of Colorado Affidavit for Collection of Personal Property Pursuant to Small Estate Proceeding (04/30/26)

Waiting period

10 days after the death

Fee

The county motor vehicle office charges title fees.

Transfer-on-death title

An owner can name a transfer-on-death beneficiary for a vehicle with form DR 2009. After the death, the beneficiary presents the death certificate, DR 2009 and form DR 2395.

Source: Official page

Bank accounts after a death in Colorado

When one owner of a joint account dies, the money belongs to the surviving owner. In a pay-on-death account, the money belongs to the named beneficiary after the owner dies. An account in the person's name alone is part of the estate: after 10 days, a successor can collect it, including the contents of a safe deposit box, with the small estate affidavit if the estate is under the limit.

Law: C.R.S. 15-15-212, 15-12-1201(1), (3.7)

Source: Official page

Transfer-on-death (TOD) and payable-on-death (POD) in Colorado

Real estate (TOD deed)

Yes · Beneficiary deed

An owner can sign a beneficiary deed saying the property 'transfers on death' or 'conveys on death' to a named beneficiary. It must be recorded with the county clerk and recorder before the owner dies. The beneficiary has no rights until the death. A person on Medicaid, or applying for it, who has a beneficiary deed in effect can have the property counted as a resource.

Law: C.R.S. 15-15-401 to 15-15-415, 15-15-403

Vehicle title (TOD)

Yes

Law: C.R.S. 42-6-110.5; DMV form DR 2009

Bank account (POD)

Yes

Law: C.R.S. 15-15-212

Securities (TOD)

Yes

Law: C.R.S. 15-15-301 et seq

Source: Official page

Surviving spouse in Colorado

Colorado has no separate small estate procedure for a spouse. In a probate case, the surviving spouse (or, if none, dependent children) is entitled to exempt property (a base of $30,000, adjusted for the cost of living) and a family allowance. Property the spouse receives as a joint owner or named beneficiary passes outside the estate.

Law: C.R.S. 15-11-403, 15-11-404

Debts of the person in Colorado

Anyone who receives property with the affidavit must answer for it to a personal representative appointed later or to anyone with a better right to the estate.

Law: C.R.S. 15-12-1202(4)

Medicaid estate recovery in Colorado

After the death of a person who got Health First Colorado (Medicaid), the state may recover what it paid for people who were 55 or older when they got the assistance, or who were institutionalized. The amount is a claim against the estate. The state may also file liens on property of an institutionalized person, and may compromise, settle or waive recovery for good cause. Questions go to HMS.

Law: C.R.S. 25.5-4-302; HCPF Operational Memo 21-011

Agency

Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing (HCPF), Estate Recovery Program, run by its vendor HMS

Phone

303-837-8293

Official page

Official page

Who inherits with no will in Colorado

If there is no will, the surviving spouse gets everything if the person left no children or parents, or if all the person's children are also the spouse's children and the spouse has no other children. In other cases the spouse gets a set dollar amount (adjusted for the cost of living) plus a share of the rest. Anything not going to the spouse goes to the children (or their descendants), then parents, then brothers and sisters and their descendants, then grandparents' families. A designated beneficiary under a designated beneficiary agreement can also inherit.

Law: C.R.S. 15-11-101 to 15-11-103, 15-11-102.5

Source: Official page

Death certificates in Colorado

A request must include a photocopy of your ID. Extra copies of the same record ordered at the same time are $13 each.

Where to get it

Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE), Vital Records Section

Official page

Official page

Where to file in Colorado

The small estate affidavit is not filed with any court; you give it to the bank or other holder. If it is used to collect a debt secured by real estate, a copy is recorded with the county clerk and recorder. For a vehicle, use DMV form DR 2712 at the county motor vehicle office. Real estate that passes by will or inheritance cannot be transferred by affidavit; a probate case is filed in the district court of the county (in Denver, the Denver Probate Court).

Good to know in Colorado

• Colorado's limit counts real estate and property anywhere that passes by will or inheritance, even though the affidavit cannot transfer real estate (C.R.S. 15-12-1201(1)(a); JDF 999).
• The waiting period is only 10 days after the death.
• A holder that refuses a proper affidavit without reasonable cause can have to pay the successors' costs and attorney fees.

Changes in 2024–2026

The limit is adjusted each year for the cost of living: $82,000 for 2024 deaths, $86,000 for 2025 deaths and $88,000 for 2026 deaths (JDF 999 R: April 28, 2026; DMV DR 2712 (04/30/26)).

National rules that apply in every state

Federal estate tax

• For a person who died in 2026, a federal estate tax return (Form 706) is required only if the gross estate, plus certain lifetime taxable gifts, is more than $15,000,000.
• Most estates owe no federal estate tax and do not need to file a federal estate tax return.

Law: 26 U.S.C. 2010(c)(3) (as amended by Pub. L. 119-21)

The final income tax return

• Report all income up to the date of death and claim all eligible credits and deductions.
• Someone must file the final federal income tax return of a person who died, the same way it would have been filed if they were alive.
• To claim a refund due to the person who died, attach Form 1310 (Statement of Person Claiming Refund Due a Deceased Taxpayer).

Law: Form 1310 instructions (Rev. December 2025)

More →

Social Security

• Social Security retirement benefits are paid through the month before the month the person died.
• If the person had enough Social Security work credits (was fully or currently insured), a one-time death payment of $255 (or three times the person's basic benefit, if that is smaller) can be paid to a surviving spouse who lived with the person.

Law: 42 U.S.C. 402(a), 402(i)

Savings bonds

• If the person's savings bonds and other Treasury securities held directly with the Treasury are worth more than $100,000 at the date of death, the Treasury requires a court-administered estate.

Law: 31 CFR 353.71; FS Form 5336 (Rev. April 2026)

More →

Debts

• Debts are generally paid from the money and property the person left (the estate).
• If the estate cannot pay a debt and no one else shared responsibility for it, the debt may go unpaid.
• You may have to pay if you co-signed the loan, were a joint account holder on a credit card (not just an authorized user), or state law makes a spouse responsible for certain debts, such as in community property states or states with laws on necessary costs like health care.

Law: 12 CFR 1006.6(a)(4)

More →

A house with a mortgage

• For a home with fewer than five units, a lender may not call the whole loan due just because the home passes to a relative after the borrower's death, to a spouse or children who become owners, or to a surviving joint owner.
• Https://www.consumerfinance.gov/ask-cfpb/how-do-i-get-mortgage-information-about-a-home-i-inherited-en-217/
• Https://www.consumerfinance.gov/ask-cfpb/i-recently-inherited-a-house-the-mortgage-lender-said-its-required-to-determine-my-ability-to-repay-before-it-will-let-me-take-over-the-mortgage-loan-is-this-true-en-1939/

Law: 12 U.S.C. 1701j-3(d)(3), (5), (6); 12 CFR 1024.30(d), 1024.31

FDIC insurance on bank accounts

• After a deposit owner dies, FDIC insurance on the account stays the same for six months, unless the account is restructured.

Law: 12 CFR 330.3(j)

Medicaid estate recovery

• States must try to recover some Medicaid costs from the estate of a person who got benefits at age 55 or older: nursing facility services, home and community-based services, and related hospital and prescription drug services.
• The 'estate' includes at least the property in the person's probate estate under state law.
• Https://www.govinfo.gov/link/uscode/42/1396p?type=usc&year=mostrecent&link-type=html

Law: 42 U.S.C. 1396p(b)

More →

Death certificates

• Certified copies of a death certificate come from the vital records office of the state where the death happened, not from the federal government.

Questions about small estates in Colorado