Colorado Probate System Audit 2006

Original audit report
Response by the task force
Final report

At the request of the State Auditor, an audit was conducted by a Texas firm to review the performance of the Colorado probate system. Specifically, they were tasked with auditing the appointment and monitoring of guardians, conservators, personal representatives and trustees.

The auditors chose six courts in the state as part of this limited audit including the probate courts in Jefferson County, Denver, Colorado Springs, Greeley, Castle Rock, Centennial and Grand Junction. Out of the hundreds of cases in these locations, 152 cases were selected by the auditors. As a guideline, their audit used the best practices established by the National Probate Court Standards and the Second National Guardianship Conference Consensus or “Wingspan”. It should be noted that Wingspan is the name of a gathering of multi-disciplinary experts who met in 1998 to collaborate on how to reform guardianship practices across the United States. The auditors self selected these reformatory mandates to be the best practices of probate law experts nationwide and the controlling audit standards for the Colorado courts.

What follows are the recommendations and findings of the independent auditors’ report to the State Auditors Office.

Oversight of Probate Cases Colorado Judicial Branch Performance Audit 2006

In response to the audit, Chief Justice Mary Mullarkey formed a Task Force to address concerns raised by the audit and to recommend changes to the probate system. The preliminary report of the Task Force may be viewed by [clicking here].

Probate Audit report and final report of the Probate task force

• Brief Status Report on responses to Specific Audit Recommendations
• Final Probate Report - Appendices January 4, 2008
• Letter to Representative James Kerr March 2008 Final
• Probate Final Report January 3, 2008