How Moving to or From Colorado Affects Your Existing Estate Plan

Moving to a new state involves a long checklist: changing your address, registering your vehicle, finding new doctors, updating insurance, and figuring out where everything is.

Your estate plan probably is not at the top of that list.

It should, however, be somewhere on the list.

If you move to Colorado with a will, trust, powers of attorney, or other estate planning documents created in another state, you generally do not need to assume that your entire estate plan suddenly became invalid the minute you changed your residence. Likewise, moving away from Colorado does not automatically cancel documents you signed here.

But that does not mean your old estate plan will work the way you expect under the laws of your new home state.

A move is a good reason to review your estate plan/  It may not be necessary to start over, but state law can affect how your documents are interpreted, how your estate is administered, and whether your existing plan still accomplishes your goals efficiently.

Is My Out-of-State Will Valid in Colorado?

Often, yes.

Colorado law provides a lot of flexibility for wills executed in other states. Under C.R.S. § 15-11-506, a written will may be treated as valid in Colorado if it was executed in compliance with Colorado law or if its execution complied with the law of certain other jurisdictions connected to the person making the will.

That means someone who moves to Colorado does not ordinarily need to rush out and sign a new will simply because their previous will says “State of Texas,” “State of California,” or another state in the document.

Rather than asking:

“Is my old will still valid?”

You should be asking:

“Will my existing estate plan work well now that I live in Colorado?”

Those are very different questions.

A will can be legally valid and still contain provisions that are outdated, inconvenient, poorly suited to Colorado law, or no longer consistent with your current assets and family circumstances.

What Makes a Will Legally Valid in Colorado?

Colorado’s requirements for executing a will are relatively flexible.

Generally, a person making a will must be at least 18 years old and of sound mind. The will ordinarily must be in writing and signed by the person making it, called the testator, or signed on the testator’s behalf under circumstances permitted by Colorado law. See C.R.S. §§ 15-11-501 and 15-11-502.

For a typical written will, Colorado allows more than one method to execute it.

The will may be:

• signed by the testator and witnessed by at least two people who qualify as witnesses; or
• signed and acknowledged by the testator before a notary or another person legally authorized to take acknowledgments.

This surprises many people because they assume every valid will must have both two witnesses and a notary.

That is not actually the case.

However, our law office and many other attorneys commonly use witnesses and notarization because doing so can allow the will to be made “self-proved.” A properly self-proved will can simplify the process of establishing that the will was properly executed after the testator dies.

We find there is an important distinction between what may be sufficient to create a valid will and the formalities an estate planning attorney may recommend to reduce potential problems later.

Does a Colorado Will Have to Be Notarized?

Not necessarily.

As noted above Colorado law provides that notarization is one way to execute a will, but it is not the only one. A traditionally witnessed will can also be valid.

Notarization becomes particularly useful in connection with a self-proving will.

A self-proved will contains the acknowledgments and affidavits required by Colorado law so that, when the will is later submitted to probate, the court ordinarily does not need testimony from the witnesses simply to prove that the will was properly signed.

That may sound like a technical difference, but good estate planning often consists of eliminating small, avoidable complications for the people who will eventually have to administer the estate.

What About a Handwritten Will?

Under the right circumstances, Colorado recognizes handwritten wills, which are commonly called holographic wills.

Under C.R.S. § 15-11-502, a will may qualify as a holographic will if the signature and material portions of the document are in the testator’s handwriting. A holographic will does not necessarily require witnesses.

So the short answer is yes—a handwritten document can potentially be a legally valid Colorado will.

That does not mean writing your own will on a sheet of notebook paper is equivalent to having an estate plan professionally prepared.

The distinction is important.

While a handwritten will may qualify as a valid will, good estate planning will issues such as:

• what happens if a beneficiary dies before you;
• who serves as personal representative;
• what happens if the person you nominated cannot serve;
• how property passes to minor beneficiaries;
• how beneficiaries with disabilities or creditor concerns are protected;
• whether taxes or expenses are allocated appropriately;
• what happens to property that was not specifically mentioned;
• how beneficiary designations coordinate with the will; or
• whether the document actually accomplishes what you intended.

Most handwritten wills do not cover all the important issues so, while valid, they may still create uncertainty, expense, or litigation that careful planning might have prevented.

Why Are Wills Contested?

Most estates are not contested. But disputes can arise, particularly when family expectations and estate planning documents do not match.

Colorado law recognizes several grounds upon which an interested party may challenge the validity of a will.  These include issues involving testamentary capacity, undue influence, fraud, duress, mistake, revocation, and whether the will was properly executed.

Some common situations that can increase the likelihood of a will contest include:

A dramatic change in the estate plan late in life.
If a parent historically planned to divide an estate equally among three children and then suddenly leaves almost everything to one child shortly before death, the other children may question what happened.

Questions about mental capacity.
A diagnosis of dementia or other cognitive decline does not automatically make a will invalid. The capacity to make a will is determined under the applicable legal standard and circumstances at the relevant time. Still, concerns about mental capacity can lead to litigation.

Allegations of undue influence.
Disputes can arise when someone who benefits substantially from a new estate plan was also heavily involved in arranging or facilitating the changes.

Do-it-yourself documents with unclear language.
Family members may genuinely disagree about what the person intended because the document does not answer the question clearly.

Multiple versions of a will.
Finding a 2012 will, a handwritten amendment from 2018, and another will signed in 2023 can create questions about which documents remain effective.

Improper execution.
Even a well-written document can create problems if the required signing formalities were not followed.

One advantage of working with an estate planning attorney is not merely having someone type out a will. A good planning and signing process also creates evidence that the client understood the plan, made decisions voluntarily, and properly executed the documents.

That can become extremely important if the plan is questioned later.

And remember that intestacy statutes generally govern probate assets. Assets passing under beneficiary designations, survivorship ownership, or certain trusts may pass outside the probate estate.

That is one reason estate planning should involve more than simply preparing a will.

Moving to Colorado? Review More Than Your Will

If you recently moved to Colorado, bring your entire estate plan to a Colorado estate planning attorney for review.

That may include:

• your will;
• revocable living trust and amendments;
• financial power of attorney;
• medical power of attorney or health care documents;
• living will or advance directive;
• beneficiary designations;
• deeds and other real estate ownership documents; and
• information about how major financial accounts are titled.

The attorney may conclude that some or all of your existing documents are perfectly usable.

That is a good outcome. Estate planning should not involve replacing documents simply for the sake of replacing them.

But the review may also reveal issues created by the move.

For example, your documents may refer to laws or procedures from your previous state. Your nominated fiduciaries may no longer be practical choices. You may now own Colorado real estate. Your financial accounts and beneficiary designations may no longer coordinate with the rest of your plan. Or your family and financial circumstances may simply have changed since the documents were signed.

Moving Away From Colorado? Have the Plan Reviewed in Your New State

The same principle applies if you are leaving Colorado.

Your Colorado documents do not necessarily become ineffective simply because you establish residence somewhere else.

But your new state’s laws may differ significantly.

That is especially important because states can take different approaches to subjects such as marital property, probate procedure, powers of attorney, health care documents, homestead rights, estate or inheritance taxation, and trust administration.

If you establish permanent residence in another state, an attorney licensed in that state should generally review the plan.

That does not mean your Colorado attorney made a mistake or that your old documents were poorly drafted. Estate plans operate within a legal environment, and you have changed that environment by moving.

Don’t Forget Your Powers of Attorney and Health Care Documents

People tend to focus on their wills when they move, but incapacity documents can be just as important.

If you were hospitalized tomorrow, would your new Colorado medical providers readily understand your health care documents?

Would a Colorado financial institution be comfortable accepting your financial power of attorney?

Does the person you named as your agent still make sense now that you live hundreds or thousands of miles away?

Documents created under another state’s law may remain legally effective, but practical acceptance matters too. Sometimes updating documents using familiar Colorado format and terminology can make things easier when the documents actually need to be used.

Your Estate Plan and Your Assets Must Still Work Together

Moving is also an excellent time to review asset alignment.

Your will controls only certain property. A trust controls property only when the relevant assets are properly connected to the trust. Beneficiary designations and joint ownership arrangements can override what your will says.

That means a wonderfully drafted estate plan may still produce an unexpected result if the assets are titled incorrectly or beneficiary designations point in a different direction.

After a move, review your assets and ask:

• Who owns each asset?
• Does it have a beneficiary designation?
• Has newly acquired real estate been addressed in the estate plan?
• If you have a trust, are the appropriate assets aligned with it?
• Do retirement account and life insurance beneficiaries still reflect your intentions?

This review is particularly important after buying or selling a home, opening new financial accounts, changing financial advisors, or consolidating investments as part of a move.

Does Moving Mean You Need an Entirely New Estate Plan?

Not always.

For many people, the right answer is simply to have the existing plan reviewed and make targeted updates.

Others may discover that their move provides a good opportunity for a more substantial redesign because their family, assets, goals, or planning opportunities have changed.

The key is not to assume either extreme.

Do not assume your estate plan became worthless when you moved.

But do not assume that a document being technically valid means it doesn’t merit a review.

A Move Is a Natural Estate Planning Checkpoint

An estate plan should not be viewed as a stack of documents that you sign once and put in a drawer forever.

It is a legal structure designed to work with your family, your property, and the law.

When one of those things changes, the plan deserves another look.

Moving to or from Colorado is one of those natural changes that should prompt you to look the plan over.

A review can confirm that your existing documents remain appropriate, identify a few changes that would make administration easier, or uncover larger planning issues before they become problems.

Either way, the goal is the same: making sure the plan you already have will produce the result you actually intend when your family eventually needs it.