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The first document to be filed with the court is what’s called the application. So to fill out that application, you’ll need your name, how you want to present it in legal documents, your address, your mailing address if it’s different, the address of the decedent, the death certificate, so that uh there’s information on there that the attorney will need, and the names and addresses of all the potential heirs. And that’s not just people who are named in the will. That’s people who were potential

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heirs if there were no will because you’re going to have to identify those people and then send them notice that you’ve been appointed. So if you get that much u plus social security for the decedent if there is an original will get that as well. That’ll have to be given to the court. But that all of that gets you started.

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Number one, you can actually deposit it with the county. Nobody does that anymore. That’s 50, 60, 80, 100 years ago is how people would handle that. You can still do it, though. A lot of people will put it in the safe deposit box. If you’re going to do that, let people know it’s in the safe deposit box and keep a copy outside of the safe deposit box because the bank has this problem of not allowing somebody to get into the box without knowing that they have the authority. But the instrument that

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creates their authority is in the box. It’s a catch 22. What do I do? So, make sure there are copies outside. You can get um appointed as personal representative by the court even though it’s based on a copy as long as you can say, “Look, the I know the original is in that box. I just need to be appointed.” And the third way is what my clients typically do. I give them a fireproof bag to keep it in. give them copies and I give them a flash drive so that they can make copies and I tell

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them to tell other people where that is and give them copies if they’re ultimately going to be the personal representative.

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You can certainly write your own will. That’s not the question. The question is, is it a good idea to write your own will? And people will think, well, gee, it doesn’t cost me anything to write my own will. If you do it all in your own handwriting and you sign it and you date it, it’s valid, but it’s much easier to challenge that will than it is a will that’s been witnessed andor notorized andor prepared professionally. So before you do that, you are going to be leaving a potential mess for your heirs. And

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it’s probably worth some money to sit down and talk to an attorney and get it done right rather than creating a problem.

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You can appoint anyone you’d like as a personal representative in Colorado as long as they’re over the age of 21 and competent. Now, you’ll say in your will, I I nominate my son, Fred. But if others object to Fred, they can go to court and bring up reasons why Fred’s a poor choice. I recently had a case where the person who well this one was by statute rather than by the will where the person was an eighttime felon and was trying to get himself appointed as a personal representative and it was clear he was just going to steal the money from his niece. So, it wasn’t hard to get him taken away, to have the court not appoint him as the personal representative, but pretty much anyone you want. And there are banks, there are CPAs, there are attorneys who will act as a personal representative for you if you don’t have a relative to do it. In the case where none of those applies, the court will appoint what’s called a special administrator, people that the court has approved before to do

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Out-of-state property is pretty easy to handle unless it is real estate. If you open up a probate case in Colorado and say someone owns a limited liability company or share in limited liability company or corporation that is out of state, that’s just personal property. They have a bank account in some other state. Personal property, you can simply go to those states and say, “I’ve been appointed as the personal representative and so I want to take that property and do whatever I want with it.” And you don’t have to have any kind of formal proceeding in the other state. If you have real estate though, you’re going to have to open up what’s called an ancillary proceeding, which basically means you open up a case in Colorado and then you go to say Florida and you open up another case and get yourself appointed as the personal representative down there to deal with that real estate. It’s a bit of a nuisance. It’s a bit basically doubles your expenses, but that’s the only way to do it. So, if you’ve got somebody with property out of state real estate, encourage them to either put it in a trust or do a beneficiary deed before they pass so that you won’t have to go through

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Contesting a will anywhere is difficult. There’s some very narrow grounds on which you can do it. But if you’re determined to do so, and I get a call probably twice a month, somebody saying, “Hey, I’m getting screwed. How do I contest this?” You will get, if somebody else is probating it, you will get a notice in the mail saying that they’ve been appointed. And then you have the opportunity to hire an attorney and go in and ask for a formal hearing at which a judge will listen to your complaints. I have to tell you though, it’s very difficult to do and if the will has been properly executed and they’ve been properly represented, odds are you’re going to lose and odds are you’re going to spend significant money doing it. So, if you want to talk about it, happy to do so.