Estate Planning

Designated Beneficiaries under the Act

In 2009, the Colorado legislature passed an act, called the Designated Beneficiary Act (DBA), which permits non-married adults to sign an agreement that gives each other certain rights and appoints each other for certain roles.

Same sex couples as well as non-married opposite-sex couples may make use of the DBA to allow them to have some of the same state rights as married persons.

The Act does not give non-married couples all of the rights and responsibilities as married couples -- in fact, not even close. But signing a Designated Beneficiary Agreement is the only way for unmarried couples to be able to:

• Show insurable interests in each other in some cases;
• Allow a partner to receive PERA survivor benefits;
• Give a partner a priority to be appointed a conservator, guardian and personal representative without a will;
• Initiate a formal complaint regarding alleged violations of rights as a nursing home patient;
• Allow a partner to inherit from the other if there is no will;
• Claim worker's compensation benefits; and
• Have standing to sue for wrongful death.

Designated Beneficiary Agreements are NOT wills. Wills and other legal documents will trump a Designated Beneficiary Agreement.  However, these relatively simple documents can be used in the stead of more formal estate planning.

Designated Beneficiary Agreements are NOT cohabitation agreements.

Designated Beneficiary Agreements do NOT transfer property or create a pay-on-death beneficiary designation.

These agreements can be simple solutions to some of the issues that non-married partners face. Because they confer rights that cohabitation agreements cannot, they should be seriously considered by non-married partners.