Governor signs Colorado law on property disposition

A bipartisan bill dealing with how property is disposed of when a spouse dies has been signed into law by Governor Jared Polis. The “Uniform Community Property Disposition at Death Act” (SB 23-100) applies to what is known as “community property” that married couples own. The bill stipulates that upon death of one community property spouse, half of the property belongs to the decedent and the other half to the surviving spouse. But it clarifies that if community property spouses partition or reclassify their community property or waive rights under the act, then this stipulation no longer applies. Absent any reclassifying or waiving of rights, the bill creates a rebuttable presumption that all property acquired by a community property spouse is presumed to be community property. (In Colorado marital community property is generally those things that were bought or received during a marriage and normally doesn’t include things that are owned individually by each spouse, such as property owned before marriage, gifts, or inheritance to an individual spouse.)