You Shouldn't Need a Law Degree to Claim What Your Family Is Owed
Your spouse or parent just died in Colorado, and the state expects you to figure out the rest on your own. PERA has one set of forms. Workers' comp has another. The county assessor has deadlines you've never heard of. The Denver Probate Court operates under entirely different rules than the other 63 counties. And every law firm blog you find stops just short of telling you what to actually do — because they want you to call their office at $350 an hour.
Meanwhile, the clock is ticking. Miss the 60-day health insurance enrollment window and you lose coverage. Miss the July 1 property tax exemption deadline and you pay thousands more than you should. File in the wrong court and your paperwork gets rejected.
The Colorado Survivor Benefits Navigator: Every Agency, Every Deadline, One Roadmap
The Colorado Survivor Benefits Navigator is the cross-agency roadmap that Colorado families actually need — a single document that connects the dots between every state benefit, court process, and filing deadline so you never lose money to a missed form or a bureaucratic runaround.
This is not a generic bereavement guide with vague advice to "contact your local agencies." It is a Colorado-specific, 2026-updated reference that tells you exactly which JDF form to file, which agency to contact, and in what order — so each step unlocks the next.
What's Inside
- First 10 Days Action Plan — the time-sensitive steps that unlock everything else, from ordering death certificates to notifying Social Security and securing the house
- Probate Decision Matrix — a plain-English flowchart for choosing between the JDF 999 Small Estate Affidavit (estates under $88,000), JDF 910 Informal Probate, and JDF 920 Formal Probate, including the Denver Probate Court's separate jurisdiction rules
- Pension and Retirement Claims — step-by-step instructions for PERA survivor benefits (including Option 3 payouts and DPS-specific rules), FPPA death and disability claims for firefighter and police families, and federal survivor benefits under the Social Security Fairness Act
- Workers' Compensation Death Benefits — how to file Form WC18, the two-year statute of limitations, funeral reimbursement up to $14,206, and weekly benefit calculations
- Property Tax Exemption Guide — the surviving spouse 50% exemption, Gold Star and disabled veteran exemptions, and the July 1 and July 15 filing deadlines for all 64 Colorado counties
- Health Insurance Survival Plan — COBRA continuation, ACA Special Enrollment Period (60-day window), Medicare transitions, and Health First Colorado Medicaid eligibility
- Medicaid Estate Recovery Defense — what Health Management Systems (HMS) can and cannot do, when the surviving spouse's home is protected, and how to respond to a lien notice
- Spousal Financial Protections — the $37,000 exempt property allowance, $44,000 family allowance, and the elective share — benefits that take priority over creditor claims but that no one tells you about
- Life Insurance Claims — filing procedures plus the Colorado statute that forces insurers to pay interest penalties on benefits delayed more than 30 days
- 5 Ready-to-Print Standalone PDFs — a Master Document Checklist for gathering paperwork, a Deadline Calendar with every critical filing window, an Agency Contact Directory, a JDF/DPC Form Index with application tracker, and a Benefit Eligibility Map showing which programs apply to your situation
Who This Is For
- Surviving spouses trying to keep income flowing, protect the family home, and figure out which benefits to file for first
- Adult children and caregivers managing an estate for an elderly or incapacitated parent
- Families of public employees navigating PERA, FPPA, or workers' compensation death benefits
- Veterans' families and Gold Star spouses who need to meet strict annual filing windows for property tax exemptions
- Executors and personal representatives handling probate for the first time in Colorado courts
Why Free Government Websites Aren't Enough
Every form in this guide is technically available for free on the Colorado Judicial Branch website. The problem is that nobody tells you which of the 50+ JDF forms you actually need, whether your case belongs in the Denver Probate Court or a standard district court, or how your probate filing interacts with PERA pension claims, county property tax exemptions, and Medicaid estate recovery — all at the same time.
State agencies write for legal compliance, not for grieving families. Each one covers its own silo and stops there. Law firm blogs answer just enough of the question to get you to pick up the phone. The Navigator bridges that gap by connecting all of these processes into one chronological roadmap, written in plain English, with every 2026 threshold and deadline verified against current Colorado statutes.
100% Money-Back Guarantee
If the Navigator doesn't save you at least 10 hours of confusion, phone queues, and agency runarounds, email us for a full refund. No forms, no waiting period, no questions.
— Less Than 15 Minutes of Attorney Time
Colorado probate attorneys charge $300 to $500 per hour. For a fraction of one billable quarter-hour, the Navigator gives you the same cross-agency clarity — organized, current, and designed for families handling this on their own.
Every purchase includes the full guide plus 5 standalone printable PDFs and the quick-start checklist — 7 documents total. A free checklist version is also available if you want to start with the basics.