When is Probate Necessary?

Attorney Jessica Showers explains when Probate is necessary in Colorado.

When probate is necessary really depends on what state the person who died lived in. In Colorado, probate is necessary when that person owned real estate only in their name, or they had assets that were valued over altogether $66,000 and those assets don’t have a beneficiary designation. So, things like retirement accounts, IRAs, life insurance policies, lots of those things have beneficiary designations. We say on there “if I’m not around, I want that asset to go to my husband, or I want it to go equally to my kids.” And so that beneficiary designation trumps anything else. But if the asset doesn’t have a designated beneficiary, if it’s unnamed and it’s over $66,000, then it has to go through probate so that the court can sign off on the orders, changing the title out of the name of the person who died and into the name of the beneficiaries.

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