Colorado Intestate Succession: Who Inherits Without a Will

When a Colorado resident dies without a will, the Colorado Probate Code decides who inherits. The rules sit in C.R.S. Title 15, Article 11, Part 1, sections 15-11-101 through 15-11-122. The short version: the surviving spouse takes the entire intestate estate in the most common family situations, and a dollar-amount tier plus a fractional split applies in blended families or when a parent of the decedent survives.

One warning before the numbers. The dollar amounts in C.R.S. § 15-11-102 are not fixed. They adjust for inflation every year under C.R.S. § 15-10-112, and most websites still quote the stale base figures from the statute text. For deaths in 2026, the adjusted spouse tiers are $442,000, $332,000, and $221,000, not the $300,000, $225,000, and $150,000 printed in the statute. This guide uses the current figures from the Colorado Department of Revenue table and flags the base amounts where they appear.

This is the distribution side of intestacy: who gets what. For how an intestate estate actually moves through the court, who serves as personal representative, and what informal probate looks like, read the Colorado probate guide.

What Intestate Succession Covers

Dying without a will is called dying "intestate." Under C.R.S. § 15-11-101, any part of the estate not effectively disposed of by will or otherwise passes by intestate succession to the heirs the statute names.

Intestate succession reaches only probate property. Assets that name their own taker pass outside these rules entirely:

• accounts and policies with a named beneficiary
• joint tenancy property with right of survivorship
• payable-on-death and transfer-on-death designations
• real estate with a recorded beneficiary deed under C.R.S. § 15-15-402
• assets owned by a trust

A life insurance policy with a named beneficiary goes to that beneficiary no matter what the intestacy rules say. To see which assets skip probate, read how to avoid probate in Colorado.

Family protections also come ahead of the intestate shares. For deaths in 2026, the exempt property allowance is $44,000 and the lump-sum family allowance is $44,000, both adjusted under C.R.S. § 15-10-112. The shares below divide what remains after those protections and valid debts.

The Dollar Amounts Change Every Year

Under C.R.S. § 15-10-112, the dollar amounts in § 15-11-102 rise or fall with the consumer price index, measured against a 2010 base year. The Colorado Department of Revenue publishes a cumulative table of the adjusted amounts by year of death before February 1 each year.

That year-of-death framing matters. The figures that apply to an estate are the ones for the calendar year the person died, not the year the estate is settled. An estate of someone who died in 2025 uses the 2025 figures ($431,000, $323,000, and $215,000) even if probate opens in 2026. Always check the DOR table for the correct year before running the math.

The Surviving Spouse Share

C.R.S. § 15-11-102 sets the spouse's share by family situation. If more than one circumstance applies, the statute uses the one that produces the largest share for the surviving spouse.

Two things stand out. First, in the classic nuclear family, where every child belongs to both spouses and neither has children elsewhere, the spouse takes everything and the children take nothing at the first death. Second, the tiers still favor the spouse heavily: in a $400,000 estate where the spouse has children from another relationship, the spouse takes $366,000, the $332,000 tier plus half of the remaining $68,000, and the decedent's descendants split the other $34,000.

The Designated Beneficiary Share

Colorado adds a class most states do not have. Under C.R.S. § 15-11-102.5, a person named in a recorded designated beneficiary agreement under C.R.S. Title 15, Article 22, with the right to inherit, takes the entire intestate estate if the decedent left no descendants, or one-half of the intestate estate if descendants survive. These agreements are most common between unmarried partners who registered one with their county clerk and recorder.

When There Is No Surviving Spouse

For any part of the estate not passing to a spouse or designated beneficiary, C.R.S. § 15-11-103 runs a fixed order of classes. The General Assembly rewrote this section in 2022 (SB 22-092, effective August 10, 2022), so older summaries may not match the current structure. Each class must be empty before the next inherits:

1. Descendants. Children, grandchildren, and further descendants take per capita at each generation.
2. Parents, alongside descendants of deceased parents. With no descendants, the estate divides into equal shares counting each surviving parent and each deceased parent who left surviving descendants. A surviving parent takes a share outright; a deceased parent's share passes down to that parent's descendants.
3. Descendants of parents. With no descendants and no parents, the estate passes to the decedent's siblings and their descendants, per capita at each generation.
4. Grandparents, alongside descendants of deceased grandparents. The same share-counting structure as parents, one generation up.
5. Descendants of grandparents. Aunts, uncles, and cousins take per capita at each generation.

If a class has living members, the search stops there. The estate does not skip a living parent to reach a sibling.

Two related rules simplify the family math. Under C.R.S. § 15-11-107, an heir inherits without regard to how many common ancestors in the same generation the heir shares with the decedent, so a half-sibling inherits the same share as a full sibling. Under C.R.S. § 15-11-113, a person related to the decedent through more than one line takes only a single share, the larger one. Stepchildren who were never adopted are not heirs under § 15-11-103.

Per Capita at Each Generation

When a class inherits "per capita at each generation," C.R.S. § 15-11-106 divides the estate into equal shares at the nearest generation with survivors, counting one share for each living member and one for each deceased member who left descendants. Each living member takes a share. The remaining shares are then combined and divided equally among the survivors at the next generation down.

A worked example shows how this differs from the per stirpes rule used in many other states. A decedent with no spouse had three children: one living, one who died leaving one child, and one who died leaving two children. The estate divides into three shares at the children's generation. The living child takes one-third. The two remaining thirds are combined into two-thirds and divided equally among the three grandchildren, so each grandchild takes two-ninths. Under strict per stirpes, the single grandchild would have taken one-third while the other two took one-sixth each. Colorado equalizes shares within each generation.

The 120-Hour Survival Rule

Under C.R.S. § 15-11-104, an heir must survive the decedent by 120 hours, five full days, to inherit. If clear and convincing evidence does not establish 120 hours of survival, the law treats the heir as having predeceased the decedent. A child in gestation at the decedent's death counts as living if the child lives 120 hours after birth.

This rule decides who inherits when family members die in the same accident days apart. One exception: the rule does not apply if it would push the estate to the state under § 15-11-105.

Other Rules That Change the Math

Advancements. Under C.R.S. § 15-11-109, a lifetime gift counts against an heir's intestate share only if the decedent declared it an advancement in a contemporaneous writing, or the heir acknowledged it in writing. Without that writing, lifetime gifts do not reduce anyone's share.

Debts to the decedent. Under C.R.S. § 15-11-110, money an heir owed the decedent is charged only against that heir's share, and the debt is ignored if the debtor died first.

Adopted children. Under C.R.S. § 15-11-118, an adoptee and the adoptive parents have a full parent-child relationship for inheritance, so adopted children inherit exactly like biological children.

Parents barred from inheriting. Under C.R.S. § 15-11-114, a parent whose parental rights were terminated cannot inherit from or through the child. The bar also applies when a child died before age eighteen and clear and convincing evidence shows the parent's rights could have been terminated for nonsupport, abandonment, abuse, or neglect.

The slayer rule. Under C.R.S. § 15-11-803, a person who feloniously kills the decedent forfeits the intestate share and is treated as having disclaimed it.

What Happens If No Heir Exists

If no taker exists under any class, the intestate estate passes to the state of Colorado under C.R.S. § 15-11-105, subject to § 15-12-914. The statute reaches descendants of grandparents, so escheat is rare. Dying without a will does not send property to the state in the ordinary case; it sends the estate down the family tree first.

How an Intestate Estate Gets Settled

The intestacy statutes name the heirs, but someone still has to administer the estate. Probate opens in the district court of the county where the decedent lived, except in the City and County of Denver, where the standalone Denver Probate Court handles it. The court appoints a personal representative, who follows the same personal representative duties that apply when a will exists: gather assets, notify creditors, pay valid claims, and distribute the statutory shares.

Many intestate estates skip court entirely. If the estate holds no real estate and the personal property is worth $88,000 or less for deaths in 2026, heirs can collect assets with the Colorado small estate affidavit instead of opening probate. The same intestate shares determine who signs and who collects.

If reading these default rules convinced you that the statute would distribute your own property the wrong way, the fix is straightforward: making a valid Colorado will replaces every rule on this page with your own instructions.

When to Get Help

Many intestate distributions map cleanly from the statute. Others need a licensed Colorado attorney, especially when:

• a blended family triggers the $332,000 or $221,000 tier and the fractional split
• deaths days apart raise a 120-hour survival question
• a per-capita-at-each-generation division spans multiple generations
• an heir cannot be located or the family tree is unclear
• a designated beneficiary agreement, an advancement writing, or a parental bar is in play

This guide helps you organize the statutory shares and the right questions. A lawyer can advise on rights, disputes, and filing decisions for a specific estate.

This guide is general information about Colorado estates. It is not legal advice. Confirm anything that affects your situation with the district court or Denver Probate Court handling the estate, the current Department of Revenue adjustment table, or a licensed Colorado attorney.

Sources

Sources:

• Title: C.R.S. Title 15, Article 11, Part 1, Intestate Succession (§§ 15-11-101 to 15-11-122), Colorado Probate Code. Publisher: Colorado General Assembly, Colorado Revised Statutes (leg.colorado.gov). Publication Date: Current edition, accessed 2026-06-10. URL: https://leg.colorado.gov/colorado-revised-statutes
• Title: Colorado Revised Statutes 2025, Title 15, Probate, Trusts, and Fiduciaries (statutory text printout). Publisher: Colorado Office of Legislative Legal Services. Publication Date: Current edition, accessed 2026-06-10. URL: https://olls.info/crs/crs2025-title-15.pdf
• Title: Cost of Living Adjustment of Certain Dollar Amounts for Property of Estates in Probate, prepared January 21, 2026. Publisher: Colorado Department of Revenue, Office of Research and Analysis. Publication Date: Current edition, accessed 2026-06-10. URL: https://tax.colorado.gov/sites/tax/files/documents/Probate_Index_2026.xlsx