Colorado Beneficiary Deed Statute: Recording, Revocation, and Creditors

A Colorado beneficiary deed lets you name someone to inherit your real estate at your death without the property going through probate. You sign the deed, have it notarized, and record it with the county clerk and recorder in the county where the property sits. When you die, ownership passes to the named beneficiary by operation of law. The tool is governed by C.R.S. 15-15-401 through 15-15-415, and while the mechanics are simple, several rules catch owners off guard.

What the Deed Does and Does Not Do During Your Lifetime

A beneficiary deed is a revocable transfer that only takes effect at your death. Until then, the beneficiary has no legal interest in the property at all.¹ You can sell the property, refinance it, lease it, or leave it empty. You do not need the beneficiary’s permission, and you do not need to tell them the deed exists. The deed also does not require any payment or exchange of value to be valid.

Because the transfer happens outside probate, the beneficiary usually takes the property without court involvement. Usually. The statutory form itself warns in capital letters that “EXECUTION OF THIS BENEFICIARY DEED MAY NOT AVOID PROBATE,” which points to situations where creditor claims or other complications pull the property back into a probate proceeding.²

What a Valid Colorado Beneficiary Deed Must Contain

Colorado’s requirements are specific. Miss any of them and the deed may fail.

Transfer-on-death language. The deed must say “conveys on death” or “transfers on death,” or otherwise clearly show the transfer takes effect at the owner’s death.²
The owner’s signature. Only the current owner (the grantor) signs. The beneficiary’s signature, consent, or knowledge is not required.¹
Notarization. The owner’s signature must be acknowledged before a notary public.
Legal description. The deed must include the full legal description of the property, not just the street address. You can pull this from your existing deed or the county assessor’s records.
Identification of the beneficiary. The deed names the grantee-beneficiary and provides an address.

The statutory form also lets you name a successor beneficiary who takes the property if your primary beneficiary dies before you. Using that optional line avoids most of the survivorship problems described below.²

Recording Is the Step People Get Wrong

You must record the beneficiary deed with the county clerk and recorder in the county where the property is located, and you must do it before you die. An unrecorded beneficiary deed is worthless. The statutory form spells this out in bold capital letters.²

Recording means submitting the notarized deed to the county clerk along with a filing fee. Fees vary by county but are modest for a single-page document. Call the clerk’s office to confirm the current fee and any formatting requirements. Once recorded, the deed sits in the public property records and establishes the beneficiary’s future interest.

Changing or Revoking the Deed

You can revoke or replace a beneficiary deed at any time before you die, for any reason, and without notifying the beneficiary.³ There are two ways to do it:

Record a revocation. Sign a document describing the property and stating that you are revoking the beneficiary deed. Colorado provides a statutory form.
Record a new beneficiary deed. A later beneficiary deed automatically revokes earlier ones for the same property, even if the new deed covers only part of your interest.³

Whatever you do, it must be recorded in the correct county before your death. When multiple deeds and revocations exist, the most recently executed instrument controls, regardless of the order they were recorded.³

A Will Cannot Revoke a Beneficiary Deed

This is the mistake that produces the ugliest family fights. Colorado law says explicitly that a beneficiary deed cannot be revoked, altered, or amended by a will.³ If your will leaves the house to your daughter but a recorded beneficiary deed names your son, your son gets the house. To change the outcome, record a new deed or a revocation. Rewriting the will alone accomplishes nothing for that property.

Divorce Does Not Automatically Undo It

Some states automatically strip a former spouse from beneficiary designations at divorce. Do not assume Colorado does that here. If you named your spouse and then divorced, record a revocation or a new beneficiary deed naming the person you actually want.

Joint Tenancy: A Contingency, Not a Guarantee

You can record a beneficiary deed on property you hold in joint tenancy with right of survivorship, but the deed only takes effect if you are the last surviving joint tenant. If you die first, your interest passes to the surviving joint tenant through right of survivorship, and the beneficiary deed has no effect.⁴

Recording the deed does not sever the joint tenancy, and the named beneficiary does not become a joint tenant. On jointly owned property, a beneficiary deed is a backup that matters only if you outlive every co-owner.⁴

What If the Beneficiary Dies Before You

Colorado’s anti-lapse statutes do not apply to beneficiary deeds. If you name one beneficiary and that person dies before you, the deed fails, and the property passes through your will or Colorado’s intestacy laws. That may force the property into the probate process you were trying to avoid.⁵

If you name multiple beneficiaries and one dies before you, that person’s share is split proportionately among the surviving beneficiaries unless the deed says otherwise.⁵ Naming a successor beneficiary on the statutory form is the cleanest fix.

Creditors, Liens, and Medicaid Recovery

A beneficiary deed does not wipe the property clean. The beneficiary takes it subject to every mortgage, lien, easement, lease, and other encumbrance that existed during your lifetime, whether created before or after the beneficiary deed was recorded.⁵

Creditors and other interest holders whose claims are not already recorded have four months from the owner’s death to record evidence or notice of their interest. If they miss that window, they are permanently barred from asserting the interest against anyone who does not already know about it.⁵

The property is also subject to claims from the Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing for Medicaid recovery. The statutory form warns that recording a beneficiary deed can disqualify the owner from Medicaid eligibility or expose the property to Medicaid recovery after death.² Talk to an elder law attorney before signing if Medicaid is or could be in the picture.

Naming a Minor as Beneficiary

You can name a minor child as beneficiary, but a child cannot manage real estate. Without arrangements, a court may appoint a conservator, which adds cost and court oversight to a process meant to avoid both. Common workarounds include naming an adult custodian under Colorado’s Uniform Transfers to Minors Act, naming a trust set up for the child, or using your will to designate a property guardian. A UTMA custodianship in Colorado typically runs until the beneficiary turns 21, at which point the beneficiary takes full ownership.

What the Beneficiary Does After the Owner Dies

At the owner’s death, ownership vests in the beneficiary automatically by operation of law.⁵ Even so, the beneficiary needs to clean up the record. Record the death certificate together with a supplementary affidavit in the county where the property sits. The affidavit must include the property’s legal description and confirm that the person named on the death certificate is the same person who signed the beneficiary deed.⁶

Once those documents are recorded, title companies, lenders, and buyers can confirm the transfer. Skipping the step does not undo the ownership, but it will create problems the first time the beneficiary tries to sell, refinance, or insure the property.

Tax Consequences in Brief

Property passing through a beneficiary deed gets a step-up in basis under federal law. The beneficiary’s cost basis resets to the property’s fair market value on the date of the owner’s death, which sharply reduces capital gains tax if the beneficiary later sells.⁷

The property is still part of the owner’s federal taxable estate. For 2026, the federal estate tax exemption is $15,000,000 per individual, so most Colorado estates owe no federal estate tax.⁸ Colorado has no state estate tax. The state tax was effectively eliminated for deaths after December 31, 2004, when federal changes removed the state death tax credit that funded it. It could return if federal law were changed to reinstate the credit.⁹

What a Beneficiary Deed Will Not Do

A beneficiary deed only transfers real estate. Bank accounts, investment portfolios, vehicles, and personal belongings need separate tools such as wills, trusts, or payable-on-death designations. Relying on a beneficiary deed as an entire estate plan leaves everything else exposed to probate.

The deed also carries no warranties of title unless you specifically add them. Under Colorado law a beneficiary deed has the same force as a bargain and sale deed, so the beneficiary receives whatever interest the owner actually held, with no guarantee that the title is clean.² Title problems that surface after the transfer land on the beneficiary.

1
Justia. Colorado Code 15-15-402 – Real Property
2
Justia. Colorado Code 15-15-404 – Beneficiary Deed Form
3
Justia. Colorado Code 15-15-405 – Revocation, Change, Revocation by Will Prohibited
4
Justia. Colorado Code 15-15-408 – Joint Tenancy
5
Justia. Colorado Code 15-15-407 – Vesting of Ownership in Grantee-Beneficiary
6
Justia. Colorado Code 38-31-102 – Proof of Death
7
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 U.S. Code 1014 – Basis of Property Acquired From a Decedent
8
Internal Revenue Service. What’s New — Estate and Gift Tax
9
Colorado General Assembly. Estate Tax