Every question, by stage

No. Once the case is filed and served, the automatic temporary injunction bars either spouse from selling, transferring or borrowing against marital property without the other’s written consent or a court order. And both owners have to sign a deed regardless. What the injunction covers.

Whoever the temporary orders say; until then, whoever has been paying. The lender does not read the decree: a missed payment lands on both credit reports. Protecting your credit.

No. Neither spouse has to leave unless a court orders exclusive possession. Leaving does not give up your share of the house. First steps.

If the gain is over $250,000, closing before the decree and filing jointly keeps the $500,000 exclusion. If one spouse stays under the decree, the other’s $250,000 can be preserved for later. The timing rule.

Sometimes: a HELOC for the buyout, or an assumption if the servicer will release your spouse (FHA and VA are built for it). Whether you qualify alone is the real question. The buyout math.

Build two budgets, the household as it is and yours alone. Colorado’s maintenance guideline gives a starting number for marriages of three years with combined income under $240,000; child support is a separate worksheet. Then price housing honestly at today’s rates. The formula.

No. Colorado divides marital property equitably, which means fairly after weighing the factors, not necessarily equally. How the house is decided.

Yes. The only ground is that the marriage is irretrievably broken. Nobody has to prove wrongdoing, and misconduct does not affect the property division.

One spouse must have been domiciled in Colorado for 91 days before filing. For orders about children, the children need 182 days here.

No. Filing does not require anyone to leave, and leaving does not give up your share of the house. Talk to an attorney before you move; it affects who stays during the case and means paying for two homes.

Its value on the wedding date is yours. The appreciation since, and principal paid with marital money, is marital and divisible. Separate versus marital.

An inheritance to one spouse is separate property, but its growth during the marriage is marital, and mixing it into joint accounts or the house can make it hard to trace.

Same process and forms, but you stay legally married, which some people choose for health insurance or religious reasons. Either spouse can convert it to a divorce after 182 days.

Yes. Many agreed Colorado divorces use the court’s forms and the free self-help centers. With a house, retirement accounts or children, at least one consultation is worth it, and limited-scope representation lets you hire a lawyer for one task.

Use a private window on your own device, and do not wipe your whole history. Nothing here requires an email to read. Browsing safely.

Yes: the live workshop, in person and on Zoom one Saturday a month, and every talk online here. The virtual workshop.

Write down the date. File your response within 21 days (35 if served out of state). Do not move money, sell anything or cancel insurance. Keep paying the mortgage. Gather documents. Get one consultation. This week, in order.

The court order that takes effect on both of you when the case is filed and served. No selling, transferring, hiding or borrowing against marital property; no disturbing the peace; no taking the kids out of state; no cancelling insurance, without consent or an order.

No. Not under the injunction, and not without your signature on the deed regardless.

Ordinary living expenses are allowed. Draining or hiding money is exactly what the injunction forbids, and the sworn financial statements will show it. Document balances the day you are served.

Nobody, unless a court grants exclusive possession under temporary orders, usually on a showing that harm would otherwise result.

Whoever the temporary orders say; until then, usually whoever has been paying. A missed payment lands on both credit reports. Protecting your credit.

JDF 1111, the form both spouses file within 42 days listing income, expenses, assets and debts, with three years of records exchanged under Rule 16.2. Get a written valuation before you fill in the house.

Most Colorado districts require it in cases with minor children and want the certificate filed. It costs about $50 to $100 per parent.

The judge cannot enter the decree until 91 days after the respondent is served or the joint petition is filed. Agreed cases often finish soon after; contested cases take much longer.

The court can enter a default and grant what the petition asks for. File the response even if you agree with everything.

Sold and split, one spouse buys the other out, the sale is delayed for the kids, or one spouse assumes the loan. Which one depends on value, payoff and what each of you can carry alone. The four options.

Equitably. Often half each, but the judge can weigh contributions, separate-property claims and each spouse’s circumstances. Equity is value minus every loan against the house, minus selling costs if it is sold.

Value minus payoff equals equity; the leaving spouse’s share is their equitable percentage of it, sometimes reduced by estimated selling costs. On a $649,500 home with $350,000 owed, half the equity is $149,750. The math.

A HELOC for the buyout keeps the first loan but leaves your spouse on it; an assumption keeps the rate and can release your spouse if the servicer agrees, which FHA and VA allow and many conventional servicers do not. Assumptions.

Yes, with the decree, six months of receipts (three for FHA on court-ordered support) and three years of continuance from closing.

Colorado allows a deferred sale, with every term in the decree: who pays what, how paydown is credited, the trigger, who sells it. What has to be written.

The judge can order a sale at permanent orders. Before the decree, courts rarely force a sale unless there is real financial distress.

If the gain is over $250,000, closing before the decree and filing jointly keeps the $500,000 exclusion. The timing rule.

Both of you, in the stipulation. A neutral agent who gives both spouses the same numbers at the same time is what keeps the sale out of court. What a divorce realtor does.

A written CMA or an appraisal, dated. The Zestimate is not evidence. Which one you need.

Yes, in Colorado. The wedding-date value is separate; the growth since is marital.

No. It changes title only. Only a refinance, a sale, or a written release from the lender removes a name from the loan.

Pay it if you can to protect your credit, then enforce the decree in court. Call your attorney the week the first payment is missed.

By a Qualified Domestic Relations Order for employer plans; IRAs transfer under the decree; Colorado PERA uses its own order with a 90-day deadline. Retirement and pensions.

40 percent of combined income minus the lower income, times 80 or 75 percent, for 31 to 50 percent of the marriage length. Advisory, not mandatory. The formula and the table.

Divorce is a COBRA event allowing up to 36 months on the plan at full cost. Some couples choose legal separation to keep coverage; check the plan document.

$75 per party per hour through the court’s Office of Dispute Resolution ($15 with indigency); private mediators commonly $200 to $400 an hour. Mediation, collaborative or court.

Go back to court to enforce the decree; the judge can order the signature or sign in the ex’s place. Title companies will also accept a certified copy of the decree in many cases.

The decree usually says the house is then sold. Ask your attorney to enforce it promptly; every month of delay is a month of your name on a loan you do not control.

A quitclaim or bargain-and-sale deed from your ex, recorded with the county clerk. The mortgage is a separate step. The three ways off the loan.

As soon as the decree is entered and you can document income and the old loan’s treatment. The six-month support history and any recent lates set the real timeline. Buying again.

Rent if income or support is still settling, credit has a fresh late, or you do not know where your life will be in a year. Buy when the numbers work at 43 percent of income or less with room for repairs.

Your own account and card, on-time payments, utilization under 30 percent, joint accounts closed or converted, and a monthly check on any loan still carrying your name. Six to eighteen months of that usually does it.

Up to half of their full benefit if the marriage lasted 10 years, you are unmarried, and you are 62 or older, and only if it beats your own. It does not reduce theirs.

Ask for name restoration in the decree, or file JDF 1824 within 60 days for free. On a later deed, recite “Mary Smith, formerly Mary Jones.”

Your status on December 31 controls: single or head of household if the decree was entered by then, married filing jointly or separately if not. Head of household needs a qualifying child and more than half the cost of the home.

There is no age. The question is whether two households can be funded from what you have, which depends on the house and the retirement split. Gray divorce in Colorado.

The marital portion by a QDRO (or PERA’s own order), usually as a share of each payment, or its present value is offset against other assets.

Divorce is a COBRA event allowing up to 36 months on the ex’s plan; Connect for Health Colorado treats the loss as a special enrollment event.

Run the cost of carrying it alone for 20 years, with a roof and a furnace in the budget. If it strains retirement, downsizing on your own timeline beats a forced sale later. Downsizing after divorce.

At 62 or older a HECM can fund the buyout as a lump sum with no monthly payment; interest compounds and equity declines. It fits some cases and not others. When it fits.

Same as any house: one buys the other out (HELOC, other assets, or a reverse mortgage after 62) or it is sold and split. No mortgage does not mean no buyout.

It can be. Over 20 years the court may set a term or order maintenance indefinitely, with written findings if it goes below the guideline term.

Yes, if you meet the age rule. Kenna keeps the current list of Colorado 55+ communities on the main site. The list.

No. Filing decides nothing about the house; the home is divided at the end of the case, in a signed separation agreement or in the decree. The useful work right now is knowing what the home is worth, what you owe on it, and what each path costs you on one income. Start with the three paths for the house.

No. Colorado is an equitable distribution state under C.R.S. 14-10-113, which means the court divides marital property fairly, and fair is not always fifty-fifty. A Colorado family-law attorney advises on how that standard applies to your facts. Our page on who gets the house walks through the factors judges weigh.

Title decides who signs, not who owns the marital interest. A home bought during the marriage is marital property in Colorado no matter which spouse is on the deed, and a home one spouse owned before the marriage is separate property while the increase in its value during the marriage is marital. A Colorado family-law attorney confirms how that applies to your home.

Moving out does not forfeit your share of the equity in Colorado. It does change the day-to-day facts: who pays the mortgage, where the children sleep most nights, and what a judge sees as the status quo at temporary orders. Talk with a Colorado family-law attorney before you move, and get the home's value on paper first.

Ask for a confidential Divorce Home Strategy Session. We prepare a written value range from closed sales and an equity worksheet, and nobody visits the home unless you invite us. Call 303-955-4220 and a live person answers, or book the session here.

Before a case is filed there is no automatic injunction, but a Colorado judge looks back at what happened to marital money, and cash pulled from the equity is still marital property to be accounted for at the decree. A Colorado family-law attorney advises before you sign loan documents. Our page on the mortgage after divorce explains what a lender sees.

Colorado has a 91-day minimum from the date the other spouse is served, or from a joint filing, before a decree can enter. Uncontested cases finish near that floor; contested cases with a house, a business or a parenting dispute run six to eighteen months. See the Colorado divorce process step by step.

The court filing fee is a few hundred dollars. A mediated case with a house lands in the low thousands per spouse in attorney and mediator fees; a litigated case with an appraisal fight and a parenting dispute runs into the tens of thousands. We break down the ranges on what a divorce costs in Colorado.

The deed, the most recent mortgage statement, any HELOC statement, the homeowner's insurance declarations page, the last property tax notice, and the closing documents from when you bought. Add statements for every retirement and bank account, because Colorado requires a sworn financial statement early in the case. Our Colorado divorce checklist lists every document.

Yes. "Divorce and the House" runs the second Saturday of every month at 9:00 AM Mountain on Zoom, camera off is fine, and there is no pitch. The Kenna Group walks through sell, keep and buyout with Colorado numbers, and a Colorado family-law attorney answers the legal questions. Reserve a seat here.

No. We are a real estate group at Keller Williams DTC, not a law firm, and we do not represent either spouse in court. We handle the house: value, equity, the sale, the buyout math and the next home, and we refer you to Colorado family-law attorneys and mediators for the legal side. Meet the divorce real estate group.

Nothing changes on title today. Once you are served, Colorado's automatic temporary injunction binds you, which bars either spouse from selling, refinancing, transferring or concealing marital property without written consent or a court order. You have 21 days to file a response, and a Colorado family-law attorney advises on that deadline. Read what to do after being served.

It is a standing order printed on the summons in every Colorado dissolution case. It stops both spouses from transferring, encumbering, concealing or disposing of marital property outside the ordinary course of business or the necessities of life, from canceling insurance, and from taking the children out of Colorado without consent or a court order. It binds the filing spouse at filing and the other spouse at service.

Yes. Paying the mortgage, taxes, insurance, HOA dues and repairs is the ordinary course of keeping the home, and the injunction expects it. Keep receipts, because payments made from separate funds after service are something a Colorado family-law attorney raises when the equity is divided. See keeping the house.

Yes. Both spouses complete a Sworn Financial Statement and exchange mandatory financial disclosures early in the case, within about six weeks of service. The house goes on it at your best estimate of value with the mortgage balance next to it, and a written value range from a Colorado real estate professional carries more weight than an online estimate. Get a written value range.

Colorado will not enter a decree until at least 91 days after the respondent is served or the co-petition is filed. It is a floor, not a schedule; a house sale, an appraisal or a parenting dispute pushes the real timeline past it. The full timeline is on the Colorado divorce process.

Mediation is the two of you plus a neutral, deciding value, who keeps the home and the buyout terms on your own schedule. Litigation is a judge deciding those same points after appraisals and testimony, at higher cost and on the court's calendar. Most Colorado judicial districts order mediation before a contested hearing. Compare them on mediation vs. litigation.

Only with your spouse's written consent or a court order, because the injunction is in force. Couples who agree to sell sign a stipulation, the court approves it, and the listing moves forward while the case continues. Here is how a divorce sale works.

Get the broker's value range first; it is free, fast and shows the equity picture. A licensed appraisal costs a few hundred dollars and carries more weight in a contested hearing, and many couples end up with both. Start with what the house is worth.

Colorado lets you represent yourself, and the courts publish self-help forms. With a house, a retirement account or children involved, a Colorado family-law attorney reviewing the paperwork before you sign anything is worth the fee, and we keep a referral list of attorneys and mediators. Ask the group for a referral.

Both spouses have a right to the marital home until a court says otherwise, and changing the locks without an order invites a motion. If you need exclusive possession, a Colorado family-law attorney requests it at temporary orders. Read who gets the house.

No. Colorado is a no-fault state, and the court divides marital property the same way whether you are the petitioner or the respondent. Filing first sets the date the injunction binds you and starts the 91-day clock. If you were the one served, start with the first steps after service.

Temporary orders are the rules for the months between filing and decree: who lives in the house, who pays the mortgage, temporary maintenance and child support, and a temporary parenting schedule. They do not decide who gets the house permanently. See where they fall in the Colorado divorce process.

Yes. A Colorado judge can award one spouse exclusive use and possession of the home at temporary orders, above all when the children are living there. Possession during the case is not ownership, and the equity is still divided at the decree. Read who gets the house.

Whoever the temporary orders say, and until there are orders, whoever has been paying. Missed payments hurt both credit reports because both names stay on the loan, so keeping the mortgage current protects your own equity. Our page on the mortgage after divorce explains the credit side.

Yes, with a signed stipulation or a court order. Proceeds go to a trust or escrow account, or are split by agreement, and selling before the decree avoids a second closing after the case ends. Here is how we run a sale during a case.

Document every missed payment and tell your Colorado family-law attorney the same week, because a motion to enforce temporary orders is the remedy. If you can, make the payment yourself and keep the record; a judge can credit it back at the decree. See what to do when one spouse will not cooperate.

Not without consent or a court order; a HELOC encumbers marital property and the injunction bars it. Judges do allow it on motion in some cases, and a Colorado family-law attorney asks. Our page on home equity in a divorce covers what a lien does to the buyout math.

Colorado values marital property as of the date of the decree or the hearing on property, not the date you separated. In a rising market that helps the spouse leaving; in a falling market it helps the spouse staying; either way, a stale value from months ago costs someone money. Get a current value range.

Routine maintenance and needed repairs are fine and expected. A major remodel funded with marital money invites a fight, so agree in writing first. Keep every invoice, because repair costs before a sale are accounted for at the closing.

File the claim, because the roof belongs to both of you and Colorado policies set claim deadlines; a hail claim not filed in time is equity lost. The insurance proceeds are marital, held or spent on the repair by agreement, and a new roof is the first thing a buyer asks about on a Front Range sale.

Discovery is the formal exchange of documents: mortgage statements, the deed, HELOC records, appraisals and any refinance paperwork. Colorado requires both spouses to disclose every asset and debt, so a hidden refinance or a second lien surfaces and costs the spouse who hid it. Our checklist lists the house documents to have ready.

The house goes to whoever the two of you agree on, or to whoever the judge assigns under the equitable distribution standard in C.R.S. 14-10-113. Judges weigh each spouse's contribution, the value of the property set apart to each, each spouse's economic circumstances, and whether the parent with the children needs to stay. A Colorado family-law attorney advises on your facts; our page on who gets the house explains the factors.

Three: sell and split the proceeds, one spouse keeps it and buys out the other, or both keep it for a set period and sell later. Each one has a number attached, and the Divorce Home Strategy Session puts all three side by side. Start with the house in a divorce.

One spouse pays the other for their share of the equity: with cash, by refinancing to pull the money out, or by trading other marital assets such as a retirement account. The spouse leaving signs a quitclaim deed at closing, and the spouse staying refinances to remove the leaving spouse from the mortgage. The full math is on spousal buyouts.

Market value minus the mortgage and any liens, and then the couple decides whether to subtract the cost of a hypothetical sale, meaning commission and closing costs. Colorado judges differ on deducting sale costs when nobody is selling, so that point is negotiated. We show both versions on the buyout worksheet.

Run it on one income: the refinanced payment at today's rate, taxes, insurance, HOA and any metro district levy, utilities, maintenance at one to two percent of value per year, and the buyout itself. If the total leaves nothing for retirement contributions, the house is a liability dressed as a win. Our page on keeping the house has the worksheet.

Colorado courts order the sale of marital property when the spouses cannot agree, and the decree can name a listing broker, set the pricing method, and authorize the court to sign for a spouse who will not. A Colorado family-law attorney files the motion. Read what happens when one spouse refuses to sell.

The order sets who lists the home, how the price is set, how showings work, and how the proceeds are held. The Kenna Group handles these sales as the neutral listing broker, reporting to both spouses and both attorneys in writing. See court-ordered home sales in Colorado.

Yes, with a written deferred-sale agreement in the decree that sets the sale date, who pays what, and what triggers a sale early. Both names stay on the mortgage, so a missed payment hits both credit reports, and each of you stays exposed to a lawsuit or a lien against the other. Our page on keeping the house covers the agreement.

One neutral listing broker serves both spouses in a divorce sale; two agents means two opinions on price and a home that sits. The Kenna Group communicates in writing to both spouses and both attorneys at the same time, and nobody gets information the other does not. Meet the group.

Everything goes through written channels: one shared email thread, offers presented to both spouses at once, and a pricing plan agreed before listing so nobody negotiates with the other. We have sold homes where the spouses never shared a room during the process. Here is how the sale runs.

Colorado buyers test for radon in nearly every inspection, and mitigation runs from about a thousand to a few thousand dollars. A roof past ten years on the Front Range triggers insurance questions, so pull the roof age and any hail claim history before listing. We handle both on every divorce sale.

No. A quitclaim deed removes your name from the title, not from the loan. Only a refinance, a formal assumption with a release of liability, or a payoff removes you, and until then a late payment lands on your credit. Read the mortgage after divorce.

A decree that awards the house to one spouse sets a date, ninety days to a year is the range, by which that spouse must refinance and remove the other from the loan. Miss it and the decree's fallback applies, which in most agreements is a sale. Our page on refinancing after divorce covers what lenders require.

Yes. FHA loans are assumable with the lender's credit approval of the spouse staying, and the rate stays what it is. The lender must issue a release of liability to the spouse leaving; without that paper, you are still on the loan. Mike Oswald at Rate walks through assumptions.

A VA loan is assumable, including by a non-veteran ex-spouse with lender approval. The veteran's entitlement stays tied to that loan until it is paid off or refinanced, which limits the veteran's next VA purchase, so the buyout math accounts for it. See the mortgage after divorce.

Federal law excludes up to $250,000 of gain per person, or $500,000 for a married couple filing jointly, when you owned and lived in the home for two of the last five years. Sell while still married and filing jointly and the full $500,000 applies; after the divorce, each of you gets $250,000 on your share. A tax professional confirms your numbers; our page on taxes when you sell explains the rules.

No. Under the federal divorce rules, the time your former spouse lives in the home under a decree or separation agreement counts as your use, and ownership by a former spouse counts too. Get that language into the decree. Details are on taxes when you sell.

Transfers of property between spouses incident to a divorce are not taxable events under federal law. The spouse who keeps the house also keeps the original cost basis, so the future gain is theirs alone. A tax professional advises; the math is on spousal buyouts.

Retirement accounts are divided with a court order: a QDRO for a 401(k) or a private pension, and a domestic relations order for Colorado PERA, which has its own rules and is not an ERISA plan. Trading retirement for house equity is common, but a dollar of pre-tax retirement is not worth a dollar of house equity. Read retirement and pensions in a divorce.

Yes, when it is court-ordered, you show a documented history of receiving it, and it continues for a set period ahead. Colorado calls it maintenance, not alimony, and the amount and term come from the decree. See maintenance in Colorado.

Many newer Colorado subdivisions sit in a metropolitan district that repays development bonds through an extra mill levy on your property tax. It raises the monthly payment on a keep-the-house budget and shows up in the title work and disclosures on a sale. Our keep-the-house worksheet has a line for it.

If the sale price will not cover the loan and closing costs, the choices are bringing cash to closing, keeping the house until the equity recovers, or a short sale with the lender's approval. Both spouses sign a short sale, and the decree addresses any remaining balance. Talk to the group before listing.

No. Colorado's statute lets a judge weigh the desirability of awarding the home to the parent with whom the children live most of the time, but it is one factor, not a rule. Affordability on one income still governs. Read the kids and the house.

Keep it if the one-income budget works with room to spare. Children adjust to a new home faster than to a parent who is broke and stressed, and the equity in a house you cannot afford does nothing for a child. See staying in the house with the kids.

Nesting means the children stay in the home and the parents rotate in and out on the parenting schedule. It works for a defined period, six to eighteen months, with a written agreement on costs, guests and the end date. Our page on nesting in Colorado has a sample agreement outline.

Colorado child support follows an income-shares formula built from both incomes, the overnights, and costs like health insurance and childcare. It counts as income to the receiving parent for a mortgage when documented, and as a monthly obligation for the paying parent. See the kids and the house.

Not without the other parent's agreement or a court order once the case is filed, because the injunction bars taking the children out of Colorado and Colorado law requires notice for a move that changes parenting time. A Colorado family-law attorney advises before any move. When the move is approved, we help with the next home.

No law requires it. Judges look at whether each home is adequate for the parenting schedule, and a smaller home ten minutes from the other parent beats a larger one an hour away. Compare options on rent or buy after divorce.

Most parents list in spring for a summer move so the children start the fall settled in the new home. If the case will not be done by then, a stipulation to sell before the decree keeps that timing. Here is how the sale runs.

Tell them together if you can, early, and with the plan: where each parent will live and when they will see each home. Children handle a clear plan far better than a mystery, and a move they have seen coming lands easier than one announced the week before.

The decree keeps both names on title, assigns the mortgage and costs to the parent in the home, sets the sale trigger, and states how the equity is divided at that date. Both stay on the loan, so the agreement needs a refinance or sale fallback for a missed payment. See staying in the house with the kids.

Yes, and it is the most common request we get from parents. We search by drive time to the other parent's home and to the children's activities, and we know which Denver-area neighborhoods have inventory in each price range. Start on buying after divorce.

The day the decree is final, if your income and credit qualify. Lenders read the decree, so a clean document with the house, maintenance and child support spelled out is the first thing to get right. Read buying after divorce.

Yes, in many cases. When the decree assigns the payment to your former spouse and that spouse has made the payments alone from their own account for twelve months, most lenders exclude that payment from your debt ratio. Our page on the mortgage after divorce lists the documents.

Rent when the decree is under a year old and your budget is still moving; buy when the numbers are stable and you know where the parenting schedule puts you. A six-to-twelve-month lease near the other parent is a solid bridge. Compare on rent or buy after divorce.

Lenders cap total debts near 43 to 50 percent of gross income; a comfortable budget runs lower. Child support and maintenance you pay count as debts, and what you receive counts as income once documented. Mike Oswald at Rate runs the numbers before you shop.

A private conversation with The Kenna Group about your house, your numbers and your next home. We prepare a value range, an equity worksheet and a sell, keep or buyout comparison, and nothing is shared with your spouse. Book it here, or call 303-955-4220 and a live person answers.

Yes. We provide value letters, equity worksheets and net-sheet projections that attorneys use in mediation, and we join the call when asked. Meet the group.

Close or separate every joint account the decree assigns, pull all three credit reports, and dispute anything from a joint account that the other spouse paid late, with the decree attached. A lender maps the timeline to a new mortgage; start with Mike Oswald at Rate.

Yes, plus a radon test. Colorado runs high on radon, and hail on the Front Range means a roof inspection and a look at the insurance claim history are part of every purchase we manage. See buying after divorce.

On this site, no strings. The guides cover selling, keeping, buying out, the mortgage after divorce, and the kids-and-the-house question, each with Colorado numbers. Download the guides here.

The decree controls: read the fallback clause, which in most decrees is a listing within a set number of days. A Colorado family-law attorney files a motion to enforce, and we act as the neutral listing broker under the order. Read court-ordered home sales.

The house is a larger share of the net worth, the retirement accounts are closer to being needed, and there are fewer working years to rebuild. The math on keeping a house shifts because the payment competes directly with retirement. Start with gray divorce in Colorado.

Only if it works on one income with money still going to retirement. Many of our clients over 55 sell, buy a smaller home with cash or a small mortgage, and end the monthly payment altogether. See downsizing after divorce.

With a court order. Private pensions and 401(k)s use a QDRO; Colorado PERA uses its own domestic relations order under Colorado law; military and federal pensions have their own procedures. Only the marital portion is divided, and a Colorado family-law attorney drafts the order. Read retirement and pensions in a divorce.

Yes, and it is a common trade. A pension pays for life with cost-of-living adjustments while a house costs money to hold, so get the pension valued by a professional before you trade one for the other. The comparison is on retirement and pensions.

Under federal rules, a marriage of ten years or more and being unmarried lets you claim on the former spouse's record without reducing that spouse's benefit. Colorado PERA members are outside Social Security for the years they worked under PERA, so the answer changes for public employees. A financial professional confirms your case.

A HECM requires the borrower to be 62 or older with enough equity, and it can fund a buyout and eliminate the monthly payment. It is a product with real costs and rules, so run it against a sale and a downsize before you commit. Mike Oswald at Rate prices it.

Colorado has many age-restricted communities along the Front Range with single-level living, lower maintenance and a community calendar. Prices span a wide range, and the HOA dues need a line in the one-income budget. We tour them on the downsizing page.

Coverage on a spouse's employer plan ends at the decree; COBRA continues it for up to 36 months at full cost; Medicare starts at 65. Budget the premium into the house decision, because it competes with the payment.

No. The options are a buyout funded with retirement assets, a sale and split, or one spouse taking a new mortgage against the house to pay the other. Paid-off equity is still marital property in Colorado. See spousal buyouts.

After twenty or thirty years the gain can exceed the exclusion. Selling while still married and filing jointly doubles the exclusion to $500,000, and documented improvements raise your basis, so gather the receipts. A tax professional confirms; the rules are on taxes when you sell.

After, in most cases. A home bought before the decree is marital property under the injunction unless a stipulation carves it out, so sell the marital home under the decree, then buy. We plan both moves on downsizing after divorce.