Make your own Colorado will.
Yours in about 20 minutes. Document generation isn’t currently available in Colorado while we review its rules for online legal document services. The signing requirements below still apply.
Document generation isn’t currently available in Colorado.
Is a self-written will legal in Colorado?
Yes. Colorado recognizes wills you write yourself, as long as they meet the state's signing requirements. The governing statute is Colo. Rev. Stat. §15-11-501 et seq.
Your will needs to be in writing, signed by you, and witnessed by 2 adults. You don't need a notary for the will itself to be valid, but adding a notarized "self-proving" affidavit makes the probate process faster later (this tool generates that for you automatically). Colorado also recognizes handwritten ("holographic") wills, written entirely in your own handwriting and signed.
You must be at least 18 years old and of sound mind. Choose witnesses who don't inherit under your will: some states void or reduce a gift to a witness, and the exact Colorado rule is covered below. This tool walks you through the rules so you don't trip over them.
A will you write yourself has the same legal force as one drafted by an attorney, provided you follow the signing rules. Courts admit self-written wills to probate every day. An attorney's value is in advising on complex estates, not in drafting the document itself.
What it costs to make a will in Colorado
A Colorado estate-planning attorney typically charges $300 to $600 for a simple will, and $1,000 to $1,500 for a will-plus-revocable-trust package. Rates run higher in dense metros and lower in rural areas. Most attorneys bill at $250 to $400 per hour and need one or two meetings to draft a basic will.
You can also write a will entirely from scratch with a sheet of paper and a pen, with no software at all. Colorado requires the same 2-witness signing process regardless of who drafts the document. The risk with a from-scratch will is technical: a missing self-proving affidavit, a witness who's also a beneficiary, or wording that creates ambiguity for the probate court. That's what this tool prevents.
Will.com is free at the document level. The $29/year subscription adds cloud-stored, zero-knowledge-encrypted access so you can edit and update your plan as life changes.
Colorado will requirements at a glance
How it works
- 1
Answer a few questions
About you, your family, and what you own.
- 2
Download your will
A complete, personalized document, formatted for Colorado courts.
- 3
Sign with witnesses
Print and sign in front of 2 adult witnesses. Keep the signed copy somewhere safe.
When you might want an attorney instead
An online will works for most people. It's the right tool when your situation is straightforward: you want to leave your assets to family or friends, you don't have complex tax issues, and you're not anticipating a fight over your estate.
Consider hiring an attorney if any of these apply:
- Your estate is large enough to trigger federal estate tax (over $15 million in 2026) or Colorado estate or inheritance tax.
- You own a business, complex investments, or assets in multiple states or countries.
- You're in a blended family, especially if you want to leave assets to a current spouse while protecting children from a prior relationship.
- You have a child or beneficiary with special needs and want a supplemental-needs trust that won't disqualify them from public benefits.
- You expect someone to contest the will, or you're disinheriting a close family member.
- You have substantial retirement accounts and want sophisticated beneficiary planning.
If none of these apply, an online will is genuinely fine. The legal validity of your will doesn't depend on who drafted it, only on whether Colorado's signing rules were followed.
Self-proving affidavit in Colorado
Colorado recognizes self-proving affidavits. Will.com attaches one to your will: a short statement your witnesses sign in front of a notary, swearing to what they saw when you signed.
A self-proven will skips the requirement to track down witnesses years later for the probate court. It's optional, but adding the affidavit at signing time saves your executor work. Will.com generates the affidavit alongside the will.
Who can witness your will in Colorado
Colo. Rev. Stat. §15-11-505: an individual generally competent to be a witness may act as a witness to a will, and the signing of a will by an interested witness does not invalidate the will or any provision of it. Colorado follows the UPC rule and has no purge statute, so a gift to an attesting witness remains effective. Using witnesses who take nothing under the will is still the safer practice.
Family changes after you sign
A child born or adopted after the will. A child who arrives after you sign, and who isn't named or accounted for in the will, is covered by Colorado law rather than by your wishes. The safest practice is to update your will when your family changes.
Colo. Rev. Stat. §15-11-302: a testator who becomes a parent to a child after the will is executed and fails to provide for that child in the will leaves an omitted child. Since the 2022 amendment the trigger is stated as becoming a parent, which is broader than birth or adoption. If the testator had no child living when the will was executed, the omitted child receives a share equal in value to what the child would have received had the testator died intestate, unless the will devised all or substantially all of the estate to another parent of the omitted child and that other parent survives the testator and is entitled to take under the will (§15-11-302(1)(a)); devises abate under §15-12-902 (§15-11-302(4)). If the testator did have one or more children living when the will was executed and the will devised property or an interest in property to one or more of them, the omitted child's share is limited to the devises made to those then living children, computed as if the testator had included all omitted children with the children who took under the will and given an equal share to each, of the same character (equitable or legal, present or future) so far as feasible, with those devises abating ratably and the court preserving the character of the testamentary plan to the maximum extent possible (§15-11-302(1)(b)). Neither branch applies if it appears from the will that the omission was intentional, or if the testator provided for the child by a transfer outside the will and the intent that the transfer be in lieu of a testamentary provision is shown by the testator's statements or is reasonably inferred from the amount of the transfer or other evidence (§15-11-302(2)). A living child left out solely because the testator believed the child to be dead shares as an omitted child (§15-11-302(3)).
A spouse you married after signing. Updating the will after marriage avoids relying on whatever Colorado law provides by default.
Colo. Rev. Stat. §15-11-301: a surviving spouse who married the testator after the will was executed is entitled to receive, as an intestate share, no less than the value of the share the spouse would have received had the testator died intestate, but only as to the portion of the estate that is neither devised outright to nor in trust for the benefit of a child of the testator who was born before that marriage and who is not a child of the surviving spouse, nor so devised to a descendant of such a child, nor passing to such a child or descendant under §15-11-603 or §15-11-604. The entitlement does not apply if it appears from the will or other evidence that the will was made in contemplation of the testator's marriage to the surviving spouse (§15-11-301(1)(a)), if the will expresses the intention that it is to be effective notwithstanding any subsequent marriage (§15-11-301(1)(b)), or if the testator provided for the spouse by a transfer outside the will and the intent that the transfer be in lieu of a testamentary provision is shown by the testator's statements or is reasonably inferred from the amount of the transfer or other evidence (§15-11-301(1)(c)). In satisfying the share, devises made by the will to the surviving spouse are applied first and other devises abate under §15-12-902, leaving out devises to that pre-marriage child or the child's descendant (§15-11-301(2)).
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Document generation isn’t currently available in Colorado.