Chapter 9 - § 9.1 • DEFINITION OF FOREIGN WILL

• Jurisdiction: Colorado

§ 9.1 • DEFINITION OF FOREIGN WILL

For the purposes of this chapter, a foreign will is defined as a will that has been admitted to probate in another jurisdiction, or if it has not been so admitted, is a notarial or mystic will that under the laws and customs of such other jurisdiction becomes effective on death without any further act. The foreign will, as thus defined, is to be distinguished from the will that was made by a testator who dies in Colorado, having made a will that is valid under the laws of the jurisdiction where made or where he was domiciled at death, but under the Code is entitled to original probate here (see § 3.19).¹

For specific statutory treatment of a will executed in a foreign country, see § 9.10 (Uniform International Wills Act).

Usually, a foreign will is admitted in Colorado in ancillary proceedings on the basis of a probate in another jurisdiction, together with an authentication thereof, or, if it is a will from a jurisdiction in which a will becomes effective on death without probate, upon certification of it by the legal custodian of it that it has become effective under the laws of that jurisdiction.² Many of the wills executed in other jurisdictions could be admitted here in...