Will requirements in Colorado

Who can make a will in Colorado

Colorado sets a simple threshold: you need to be at least 18, and you need to be of sound mind when you sign. Sound mind is a functional test, not a clinical one. It asks whether you know what you own, who your close family is, and that the document in front of you is your will, not whether a doctor has signed off on anything.

Signing your will in Colorado

Colorado gives you two separate paths to a valid will, and most people have only ever heard of one. Here is the standard path first, the same two-witness ceremony most states use.

1. 1You sign

   You sign the will yourself, or direct someone else to sign it for you while you are present and aware of what is happening.

2. 2Two witnesses sign

   Two witnesses sign within a reasonable time after watching you sign, or hearing you acknowledge the will as yours. Choose adults who inherit nothing under it, so no gift can later be second-guessed.

3. 3The affidavit

   Optional but common: a self-proving affidavit, a separate sworn statement you and your witnesses sign before a notary, so the court can later accept the will without tracking anyone down to testify.

A notary can replace your witnesses entirely

Colorado is one of only two states, along with North Dakota, that lets you skip the witnesses altogether. Instead of the ceremony above, you can sign your will and have your signature acknowledged before a notary public, and that acknowledgment alone makes the will valid under Colorado law, with nobody else in the room at all. Most people still choose the witnessed path, since it is the form nearly every other state recognizes and travels well if you ever move. But if two witnesses are hard to arrange, the notary path is a genuine, lawful alternative, not a workaround. One trade-off worth knowing: a will notarized instead of witnessed is valid, but Colorado does not treat it as automatically self-proved the way a witnessed-and-affidavited will is, since the self-proving statute is written around witnesses’ own sworn statements.

Handwritten and electronic wills

Colorado recognizes holographic wills. A will written and signed entirely in your own handwriting is valid here, even without witnesses, as long as your signature and the will’s material terms are in your own hand.

Colorado has also authorized electronic wills, under its own Uniform Electronic Wills Act, and it carries the same choice into digital signing: an electronic will can be witnessed by two people or acknowledged before a notary, using approved technology instead of ink. It is a real option, and still the newer, less-tested path. Myend takes the more established route: you build your will online, then print it and sign it on paper with two witnesses, the form every state, Colorado included, has always accepted. See how Myend’s Last Will works.

Property and your spouse

Colorado is a common-law property state: what you hold in your own name is yours to leave as you choose, not automatically split with your spouse the way it would be in a community property state. But the law does not let a will disinherit a spouse completely. If you are married, Colorado protects your spouse with an elective share that grows with the length of the marriage, starting small in the early years and reaching up to half of the combined estate after fifteen years of marriage. You cannot fully disinherit a spouse with a will alone. Your spouse has to actively claim the share; it does not happen on its own, but the option stands no matter what your will says.

Your executor

Colorado calls the person who carries out your will the executor. You can name almost any capable adult, in Colorado or out of state, with no residency requirement standing in the way. New to the role? Start with what an executor actually does.

If someone challenges the will

Colorado enforces no-contest clauses, provisions that disinherit anyone who challenges your will and loses, but not against a challenge brought with probable cause. If someone has a genuine, evidence-based reason to question your will, contesting it will not cost them their inheritance. The clause still discourages challenges made without real grounds.

If you do not make a will

Without a will, Colorado law decides who inherits, following a fixed order of family relationships rather than your actual wishes. For blended families, unmarried partners, and close friends, that default order is often not the one you would choose. A valid will is how you replace the state’s formula with your own instructions. See what happens if you die without a will.

What is different about Colorado

In Colorado, a notary’s acknowledgment can do the work of two witnesses standing in the room.

Most states settled on the same formula generations ago: sign in front of two witnesses, or the will does not count. Colorado, along with North Dakota, quietly built a second door. Acknowledge your signature before a notary public instead, and the will is just as valid, with nobody else present at all. It comes from the version of the Uniform Probate Code Colorado adopted, which treats a notary’s acknowledgment as standing in for two witnesses watching you sign.

The rest of Colorado’s rules lean the same generous direction. It recognizes wills written entirely in your own hand, no witnesses needed there either, and it was an early adopter of electronic wills, carrying the same witness-or-notary choice into digital signing. Put together, Colorado asks less of the signing ceremony than almost any other state, while still protecting a surviving spouse through an elective share that grows the longer a marriage lasts. The flexibility is real. It is also a reason to be deliberate: fewer required formalities mean fewer built-in checks, so it is worth choosing, once and carefully, whichever path you expect to hold up years from now.

Common questions

Sources and review