In Colorado, if a person dies without leaving a will, the estate of the deceased person is classed as intestate. Even if the deceased person did leave a will, any property not included in the will is classed as the intestate estate of the deceased person. According to section 15-11-101, Title 15, of the Colorado Revised Statutes, the intestate estate of a deceased person passes directly to the immediate heirs of the deceased person. Section 15-11-102 describes legal position of the spouse of a person who dies without leaving a will. The spouse of the deceased person will receive the entire estate if the deceased person has no surviving parent or descendants, including children and grandchildren. The surviving spouse will also receive the entire estate if all of the deceased person's descendants are also that spouse's descendants. If the deceased person has no surviving descendants, but does have a surviving spouse and a surviving parent, the spouse receives the first $200,000 of the estate, plus 75 percent of the remaining estate, with the balance going to the surviving parent or parents.
Subsequent estate hearings can be heard in a different location, if the first hearing was an informal hearing. An interested party to the estate proceedings may apply to the court, after hearing the initial proceedings, for the right to have the hearings transferred to a court in another location.