Colorado Beneficiary Deed

Last updated: August 21, 2026 Jurisdiction: Colorado

Colorado calls this a beneficiary deed

Colorado’s statutory tool is a beneficiary deed, not a Florida-style enhanced life-estate deed. The statute defines it as a deed subject to revocation by the owner that conveys an interest in real property effective on the owner’s death. The statute authorizes an owner to make the death-time transfer by executing a deed that says “conveys on death,” “transfers on death,” or otherwise shows that the transfer takes effect at death, and recording it before death with the county clerk and recorder where the property is located (Colorado General Assembly, beneficiary-deed statute; Colorado General Assembly, beneficiary-deed form amendment).

The statutory form says that the deed is revocable and does not transfer ownership until the grantor’s death. That makes it a distinct legal tool from an immediate conveyance of a remainder interest or a completed lifetime gift. Proper recording is not optional: the statute and the statutory form both say that the deed must be recorded before the grantor dies to be effective (Colorado General Assembly, beneficiary-deed form amendment).

The Medicaid warning is the central Colorado distinction

Colorado’s beneficiary-deed statute includes an unusually direct Medicaid eligibility exclusion. It says that a person who is an applicant for or recipient of the described medical assistance is not entitled to that assistance if the person has a beneficiary deed in effect. It further provides that execution of a beneficiary deed makes the property a countable resource under the Colorado medical-assistance statute and applicable rules. The statutory form warns in capital letters that execution may disqualify the grantor from being determined eligible for, or receiving, Medicaid (Colorado General Assembly, section 15-15-403 amendment; Colorado General Assembly, beneficiary-deed form amendment).

That direct rule is why a Colorado beneficiary deed should not be marketed as a Medicaid-planning shortcut. A reputable Colorado elder-law source explains that the deed can transfer a home outside probate but that the statute makes property subject to a beneficiary deed countable for the covered Medicaid applicant or recipient. The same source cautions that the federal home exemption and the beneficiary-deed rule require case-specific review rather than a blanket conclusion (Chayet & Danzo, Colorado beneficiary-deed guidance).

Probate, recovery, and eligibility are different questions

A beneficiary deed may be useful for a non-Medicaid estate plan, but probate avoidance does not erase the separate eligibility rule. Colorado’s form also warns that a beneficiary deed may not avoid probate, and HCPF administers a post-death estate-recovery program for qualifying Medicaid payments. Consequently, a correct analysis must consider title, recording, a spouse or co-owner, current eligibility, future care needs, and post-death recovery rather than stopping at the phrase “transfer on death” (Colorado General Assembly, beneficiary-deed form amendment; HCPF Estate Recovery program).

Colorado beneficiary deed: it must be recorded before death, remains revocable during life, and carries a state-law Medicaid eligibility warning because the covered property is treated as a countable resource (Colorado General Assembly, beneficiary-deed statute).

For broader home-planning context, see The Home. Have a Colorado real-estate and elder-law attorney review a proposed beneficiary deed before signing, recording, revoking, or relying on it for a person who may seek Health First Colorado LTSS.

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Colorado calls this a beneficiary deed

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