How Property Gets Divided in a Colorado Divorce
If you and your spouse have been accumulating anything during your marriage—a house, retirement accounts, vehicles, investments, debts—it all has to be sorted out. Colorado’s framework for doing this is called equitable distribution, and understanding how it works is foundational to every financial decision in your divorce.
Equitable Doesn’t Mean Equal
This is the first thing people get wrong. Colorado divides marital property equitably—meaning fairly. Not necessarily 50/50. The court considers each spouse’s economic circumstances, contributions to the marriage (including homemaking and child-rearing), and the increase or decrease in value of separate property during the marriage. In practice, many divisions end up close to equal, but the law doesn’t require it.
Marital vs. Separate Property
Anything acquired during the marriage is presumed to be marital property. Anything owned before the marriage, or received by gift or inheritance during the marriage, is generally separate property. Separate property stays with the owner—it’s not divided.
The complications arise at the boundaries. A house bought before marriage but paid down with marital income during the marriage—part marital, part separate. An inheritance deposited into a joint account and used for family expenses—potentially commingled and now marital. A business started before marriage but grown during it—the appreciation may be marital even if the original asset is separate.
Tracing the marital and separate components of assets is where cases get complex and where the right attorney and financial expert make an enormous difference in outcome.
The Division Process
Both spouses disclose all assets and debts through sworn financial statements within 42 days of service. From there, the process involves identifying every asset and debt, classifying each as marital or separate, valuing the marital assets (through appraisals, business valuations, or other methods as needed), and then negotiating or litigating the division.
Most property division is settled by agreement. If the parties can’t agree, the court decides—and the court’s decision is final. Property division orders are not modifiable after the decree. Unlike child support or maintenance, you don’t get a second shot at this. What you agree to or what the court orders is permanent.
That permanence is exactly why this phase of divorce deserves your full attention, your best team, and your clearest thinking. At Burnham Law, property division—from straightforward to highly complex—is core to what we do.