Colorado Divorce Decisions blog
How is marital property divided in Colorado?
Colorado divides marital property equitably. Here is what counts as marital, what stays separate, and how the judge decides.
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Everything either spouse acquired after the wedding is presumed marital, except gifts and inheritances to one spouse, property exchanged for premarital or gifted property, property acquired after a legal-separation decree, and anything excluded by a valid agreement. The growth in separate property during the marriage is marital. The court divides the marital estate in whatever proportion is fair after weighing contributions, the separate property each keeps, each spouse’s circumstances, and changes in separate property.
Marital or separate?
- Marital: wages, the house bought during the marriage, retirement earned during the marriage, cars, businesses started during the marriage, debts incurred during the marriage.
- Separate: what you owned on the wedding day (at that day’s value), gifts and inheritances to you alone, and property covered by a prenup.
- The catch: the appreciation of separate property during the marriage is marital, and commingling (putting an inheritance into the joint account) can make it hard to trace.
The factors
Each spouse’s contribution, including homemaking. The value of the property set apart to each. The economic circumstances of each at the time of division, including the family home and the children. Increases or decreases in separate property during the marriage and separate property spent for marital purposes. Not misconduct.
The house, retirement and the after-tax problem
The two biggest assets are usually the house and the retirement accounts, and they are not worth the same after tax: $300,000 in a traditional 401(k) is worth about $221,000 after tax, while $300,000 of home equity nets about $279,000 within the exclusion. Value everything on the same after-tax basis before you trade. Retirement and the house.
Where to go next
Plain-language education from a Colorado real estate group, not legal, tax or financial advice. Numbers are as of September 2026. Disclaimer.
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Divorce Decisions™: Colorado divorce workshops and education. Real estate services provided by The Kenna Real Estate Group at Keller Williams DTC. Not legal, tax, lending or financial advice.