(1) If any heirs or devisees of any intestate or testator are unknown, or if known and there is no person qualified to receive devises or distributive shares of such heirs or devisees at the time of making final settlement of the estate, or if such heirs or devisees refuse to receive and receipt for such devises or distributive shares, or in the event there is no taker under the provisions of article 11 of this title, the personal representative shall reduce all such devises or distributive shares to cash and shall be ordered by the court to pay any balances remaining in his hands to the state treasurer; and the state shall be answerable for the same, without interest, anytime within twenty-one years after the same shall have been paid into the treasury, to such person or persons as shall appear to be legally entitled to the same, upon order of the court having administration of the estate.
Except as provided in subsection (1) of this section, any person, corporation, association, or other entity in possession of moneys paid to him or it or in his or its possession in any fiduciary capacity, and the said moneys are unclaimed, or the person to whom the person in possession may lawfully pay the same, or the person who may be entitled thereto is unknown or absent or fails to receive and properly receipt therefor, may pay said moneys to the state treasurer; and the state shall be answerable for the same, without interest, anytime within twentyone years after the same shall have been paid to the state treasurer; such payment to the state treasurer shall discharge the person making the same from any further liability or responsibility for such moneys.
After the lapse of twenty-one years from the time any such moneys shall be paid intothe state treasury, and no claim therefor having been made and established by any person entitled thereto, said moneys shall become the property of the state and shall be transferred to the public school fund thereof, and the state shall not be liable therefor. Prior to said lapse of twenty-one years, such moneys may be invested by the state treasurer, and all interest or increment therefrom shall be credited to the general fund.
At the time any personal representative or other fiduciary pays into the state treasuryany moneys, he or she shall make a written report thereof to the attorney general of the state, giving the attorney general such information as he or she may have, under oath or affirmation, touching the identity and antecedents of the deceased, as well as of any person supposed to be entitled to said moneys, to the end that fictitious claims to the moneys may be forestalled. The attorney general shall file such reports in his or her office and keep the index thereof, and a court shall not make an order for the repayment of any moneys so paid into the state treasury without the attorney general having first been served with written notice thirty days before the time of making application therefor. Upon the serving of such notice, the attorney general is classified as an interested person under this code and may appear and take all steps for and on behalf of the state that any person who might be a defendant to such action might take. The reasonable expense of any such action taken by the attorney general must be initially paid out of the attorney general's contingent fund; but, with the approval, order, and direction of the court having jurisdiction of the estate, any such reasonable expense incurred by the attorney general in conserving the estate and in investigating and litigating the claim of any alleged heir, devisee, distributee, or creditor must be repaid to said contingent fund out of the moneys in the estate or fund in controversy before final settlement thereof.
No estate or trust shall be permitted to remain open for the reason that an heir ordevisee or beneficiary is unknown or cannot be located or refuses to receive and receipt for his share. All property subject to the provisions of subsection (1) of this section shall be paid to the state treasurer no later than three months after the entry of the order of final settlement or no later than six months after such property becomes eligible for distribution, whichever date is the earlier.
Source: L. 73: R&RE, p. 1600, § 1. C.R.S. 1963: § 153-3-914. L. 81: (1), (4), and (5) amended, p. 920, § 1, effective June 9. L. 84: (4) amended, p. 1118, § 11, effective June 7. L. 2016: (4) amended, (HB 16-1094), ch. 94, p. 267, § 11, effective August 10.