Inheritance Disclaimer and Renunciation Requirements in Colorado

At a glance

Requirements one by one

Governing law and covered interests

Colorado's Uniform Disclaimer of Property Interests Act is C.R.S. §§ 15-11-1201 through 15-11-1218. It applies to any interest in or power over property, whenever created. Section 15-11-1212 supplies separate routes for will, intestacy, testamentary and living trust, beneficiary-designation, survivorship, and power-of-appointment interests.

The act also preserves rights to waive, release, disclaim, or renounce under other law. This page addresses the Part 12 route for a competent adult acting personally.

Whole, partial, and conditional disclaimer

C.R.S. § 15-11-1205 permits a whole or partial disclaimer. A partial disclaimer may be stated as a fraction, percentage, monetary amount, term of years, limitation of a power, or another interest or estate in the property.

Part 12 does not state a general rule for a conditional disclaimer. Federal tax qualification is separate and requires an unqualified refusal.

Writing or record and required contents

The disclaimer must be a writing or other record. It must declare the disclaimer, describe the interest or power, be signed, and be delivered or filed through the correct route. Recording is also part of effectiveness for the recorded-real-property circumstance described below.

A “record” includes information on a tangible medium and information stored electronically or in another medium if it can be retrieved in perceivable form. Part 12 states no original-document, general legal-description, or state tax- representation requirement.

Signature, witnesses, acknowledgment, and notary

The beneficiary must sign. Part 12 adds no general witness, acknowledgment, oath, or notary requirement.

That remains distinct from recording evidence. C.R.S. § 38-35-106 expressly recognizes an instrument affecting real-property title as notice after recording whether it was acknowledged, unacknowledged, or defectively acknowledged. Section 38-35-109 permits written instruments affecting real-property title to be recorded in the county where the property lies.

State deadline, irrevocability, and federal-tax overlay

Part 12 states no fixed general Colorado validity deadline. Timing still matters because written waiver, acceptance, transfer, and judicial sale can bar the disclaimer before it becomes effective.

Irrevocability occurs on the later of two events: completion of the required delivery or filing, with recording added for the relevant real-property interest; or the statutory effective time under §§ 15-11-1206 through 15-11-1211.

C.R.S. §§ 15-11-1214 and 15-11-1215 recognize a disclaimer or transfer treated under federal tax law as never transferred to the beneficiary. It does not impose a general nine-month Colorado deadline. The federal definition in 26 U.S.C. § 2518(b) separately requires receipt within nine months after the later of the transfer or age 21, no prior acceptance, and passage without the beneficiary's direction.

Delivery, filing, and recipient

Delivery may be by personal delivery, first-class mail, or another method likely to result in receipt. The statute does not make mailing alone timely or state a mailing-date safe harbor.

The correct recipient depends on the interest:

• For a will or intestate interest outside a testamentary trust, deliver to the personal representative. If none is serving, file with the court that can appoint one.
• For a testamentary trust, deliver to the trustee, then the personal representative if no trustee is serving, with a trust-court filing fallback if neither is serving.
• For a living trust, deliver to the trustee or use the trust-court fallback. Before the trust becomes irrevocable, deliver instead to the settlor or transferor as § 15-11-1212(5)(c) directs.
• For a beneficiary designation, deliver to the person who made it before it becomes irrevocable, or afterward to the person obligated to distribute the interest.
• For a survivorship interest, deliver to the person to whom the disclaimed interest passes.

Section 15-11-1212 contains additional routes for powers of appointment and other powers.

Real-property recording and notice

If the beneficiary has a recorded interest in Colorado real property, a copy of the disclaimer must be recorded with the clerk and recorder of the county where the interest is located. For this rule, a recorded interest means one already recorded in that county's clerk-and-recorder office. Under § 15-11-1215, the disclaimer is not effective or valid between any persons until that recording occurs.

That is narrower than a rule requiring every disclaimer that happens to involve real property to be recorded. For other interests whose creating instrument may be filed or registered, § 15-11-1215 makes filing or registration optional and says omission does not affect validity between the beneficiary and the successor takers. Part 12 states no separate legal- description requirement.

Acceptance, transfer, insolvency, and creditor bars

A written waiver bars a disclaimer. Before the disclaimer becomes effective, it is also barred if the beneficiary accepts the interest, voluntarily assigns, conveys, encumbers, pledges, or transfers it or contracts to do so, or if a judicial sale occurs. Other law may add another bar or limitation.

Part 12 states no express insolvency or ordinary creditor-claim bar. If a power disclaimer is barred, it is ineffective. If an interest disclaimer is barred, it instead takes effect as a transfer to the people who would have taken under Part 12 had the disclaimer not been barred.

Effective date and destination

For the general property-interest rule, the disclaimer takes effect when the creating instrument becomes irrevocable or, for intestacy, at the intestate's death. An express clause in the creating instrument governing disclaimed interests controls first.

Without such a clause, an individual is generally treated as dying immediately before distribution. Colorado then applies its descendant rules, including a special fallback when the interest otherwise would enter the beneficiary's estate. A future interest held by someone else may accelerate, but a future interest held by the beneficiary does not.

Survivorship property has its own destination rules under C.R.S. § 15-11-1207. If only one holder survives, the disclaimed incremental share passes through the deceased holder's estate. If two or more holders survive, it generally devolves among the other surviving holders in proportion to their interests; if all surviving holders disclaim it, it passes through the deceased holder's estate.

What trips people up

The federal nine-month clock is not Colorado's general deadline. Part 12 has no fixed general state period. Federal tax treatment separately depends on § 2518.

Recording turns on an already recorded interest. The mandatory county recording rule applies when the beneficiary's real-property interest is itself recorded. It is not phrased as a blanket rule for every inheritance involving land.

Delivery and effectiveness are different events. The disclaimer becomes irrevocable at the later of completing delivery, filing, and any required recording, or reaching the statutory effective time.

Common questions

Does Colorado require a notary for a disclaimer?

Not as a general Part 12 execution formality. The act requires the beneficiary's signature but does not add witnesses, an acknowledgment, an oath, or notarization. Colorado's recording statute also recognizes that an unacknowledged instrument affecting title can provide notice after recording.

Is every Colorado real-property disclaimer recorded?

The mandatory rule targets a real-property interest the beneficiary already has of record. A copy must be recorded in the county where the property lies, and the disclaimer is ineffective between any persons until that happens.

Can I choose who receives the property?

Part 12 gives priority to the creating instrument's disclaimer clause. Without one, statutory deemed-death, descendant, estate-fallback, or survivorship rules determine the destination; the beneficiary does not select a replacement recipient.

Statutes and sources

• C.R.S. §§ 15-11-1201, 15-11-1203, and 15-11-1205 — act name and scope, whole and partial disclaimer, record and content, signature, and irrevocability. Official 2025 Title 15 PDF, accessed 2026-08-01.
• C.R.S. §§ 15-11-1206 and 15-11-1207 — effective time and destination for general and survivorship interests. Official 2025 Title 15 PDF, accessed 2026-08-01.
• C.R.S. § 15-11-1212 — delivery methods, recipients, court fallbacks, and recorded-interest rule. Official 2025 Title 15 PDF, accessed 2026-08-01.
• C.R.S. §§ 15-11-1213 through 15-11-1215 — bars, federal-tax recognition, and filing, registration, and realty-recording consequences. Official 2025 Title 15 PDF, accessed 2026-08-01.
• C.R.S. §§ 38-35-106 and 38-35-109 — unacknowledged recorded instruments and county recording. Official 2025 Title 38 PDF, accessed 2026-08-01.
• 26 U.S.C. § 2518(b) — separate federal qualified-disclaimer conditions. Official U.S. Code text, accessed 2026-08-01.