Ви втратили близьку людину — і вас призначено управителем.

The first week: decide, secure, and find the documents

The first days are about decisions and records, not distributions. Read the trust and every amendment and decide whether you will serve — a named trustee accepts by the trust's method or by taking over the property or acting as trustee, and one who does not accept within a reasonable time is treated as having rejected the trusteeship (C.R.S. §15-5-701). Without accepting, a named trustee may still act to preserve the trust property, if a rejection follows within a reasonable time (§15-5-701(3)).

Order certified death certificates, find the will, and note where it is: whoever has custody of a will delivers it to the court with probate jurisdiction in the county where the decedent lived, within ten days after the death or as soon after as the custodian learns of it (C.R.S. §15-11-516). Write down the date of death, the date you learned of it, and the date you accepted; Colorado's notices count from them.

The two 60-day notices

Colorado's statute provides for two notices to the qualified beneficiaries, each with its own clock. The irrevocability notice is due within 60 days after the trustee learns that the trust has become irrevocable: it tells them that the trust exists, who the settlor was, and that they may request the portions of the trust instrument that describe or affect their interest and receive a trustee's report (C.R.S. §15-5-813(2)(c)). The acceptance notice is due within 60 days after the trustee accepts: the acceptance, and the trustee's name, address and telephone number (§15-5-813(2)(b)). The two can be sent together where the dates allow.

The statute qualifies both. Neither applies to a trustee who accepted, or a trust that became irrevocable, before January 1, 2019 (C.R.S. §15-5-813(5)). The qualified beneficiaries are a class the statute defines by reference to the trust's own distributions (§15-5-103(16)), and a trust's terms cannot remove these notices for current distributees at any age or for other qualified beneficiaries who are 25 or older (§15-5-105(2)(h)). Notices may go by first-class mail, personal delivery, delivery to the last-known residence or place of business, or a properly directed electronic message (§15-5-109).

Строки довірчого власника у Колорадо: що передбачають закони

Звірено із законами Колорадо 2026-10-07. Загальна інформація, не юридична консультація; офіційний текст має пріоритет.

Taking control and reviewing the assets

A trustee takes reasonable steps to take control of and protect the trust property (C.R.S. §15-5-809), keeps adequate records and keeps trust property separate from the trustee's own (§15-5-810). Within a reasonable time after accepting or receiving the assets, the trustee reviews them and decides what to keep and what to dispose of, under the prudent investor rule (§15-1.1-104).

The review also shows what the trust holds and what it does not. Property titled to the trust passes under it. Property in the decedent's own name may pass by beneficiary designation, joint ownership with survivorship, a beneficiary deed recorded during life (C.R.S. §15-15-402), or — for a small estate of personal property — by affidavit at any time ten or more days after the death (§15-12-1201); what remains goes through the probate estate, often to the trustee under a pour-over will.

Creditors and the estate

After the settlor's death, the property of a trust that was revocable at death is subject to claims and allowances as C.R.S. §15-15-103 provides (§15-5-505(1)(c)). That section makes the recipients of the decedent's nonprobate transfers — a revocable trust included — liable for allowed claims, statutory allowances and the costs of administration, on the personal representative's demand, to the extent the probate estate is insufficient; a proceeding to enforce it begins within one year after the death, or within 63 days after the final allowance of a contested claim (§15-15-103).

When a probate estate is opened, the personal representative publishes a notice to creditors not less than three times, once in each of three successive calendar weeks (C.R.S. §15-12-801), and claims that arose before the death are barred unless presented within the time the notice sets — not earlier than four months after the first publication — and in any event within one year after the death (§15-12-803). A trustee who distributes before those periods run may leave too little for valid claims.

The surviving spouse

A surviving spouse may elect an amount equal to fifty percent of the value of the marital-property portion of the augmented estate, which can reach a revocable trust's property (C.R.S. §15-11-202); the petition is filed within nine months after the death or six months after the will's probate, whichever is later (§15-11-211). In a probate estate, the spouse — or the dependent children — are also entitled to exempt property (§15-11-403) and a reasonable family allowance during administration (§15-11-404).

A home is different in Colorado than in some states: the owner may leave it to anyone, but when the owner dies leaving a surviving spouse or minor children they are entitled to the homestead exemption from creditors, and where there is neither the homestead is liable for the decedent's debts (C.R.S. §38-41-204).

Taxes

Colorado imposes no estate tax for current deaths; the federal estate tax return (Form 706) is due nine months after the death where the gross estate exceeds the filing threshold or to elect portability for a surviving spouse. Once the trust is irrevocable it needs its own employer identification number (Form SS-4), and a trust with income files a federal fiduciary income tax return (Form 1041) and, where it must file, a Colorado return (Form DR 0105), each by the 15th day of the fourth month after its tax year ends.

Reports, distributions and the time limits

At least annually and at the trust's termination, the trustee sends the distributees and permissible distributees — and other qualified beneficiaries who ask — a report of the trust property, liabilities, receipts and disbursements, including the trustee's compensation, with a list of the assets and their market values where feasible (C.R.S. §15-5-813(3)). A beneficiary may not begin a proceeding for breach of trust more than one year after being sent a report that adequately disclosed the potential claim and stated the time allowed (§15-5-1005).

A contest of a trust that was revocable at the settlor's death must begin within the earlier of three years after the death or 120 days after the trustee sent the person a copy of the instrument and a notice with the statute's contents (C.R.S. §15-5-604); the notice is optional, and the trustee is not liable for giving or not giving it. On termination, a trustee may send a proposal for distribution, and a beneficiary's right to object ends 30 days after it was sent if it stated the right and the time (§15-5-817).

When a licensed Colorado attorney is the right next call

TrusteeClear organizes the record, computes the possible dates from the dates you record, and — for a trustee using it directly — places your own facts into the blanks of the two notices and the certification of trust. It does not give legal advice or decide whether a notice applies, who the qualified beneficiaries are, whether a claim is valid, or when it is safe to distribute. Many trustees bring the record to a licensed Colorado attorney of their choosing before paying a creditor, distributing while an elective share or a contest may be outstanding, or answering a personal representative's demand under C.R.S. §15-15-103.