Article on Effect of Adult Adoptions & Inheritance Rights

Richard C. Ausness recently published an Article entitled, Planned Parenthood: Adult Adoption and the Right of Adoptees to Inherit, 41 Am. C. Tr. Est. Couns. L.J. 241 (2016). Provided below is an abstract of the Article:

This Article is concerned with the effect of adult adoptions on the inheritance rights of adult adoptees.  The Article contends many adult adoption statutes assume the existence of a parent-child relationship in which the adopter is the “parent” and the adoptee is a “child” even though this is not true of all adult adoption cases.  In addition, legislatures and courts frequently fail to differentiate between “quasi-family” adoptions and “strategic” adoptions, particularly where inheritance rights are concerned.

The article describes various adoption scenarios.  In the case of minors, this includes the adoption of unrelated children, the adoption of descendants and collateral relatives and stepchild adoption.  All of these involve a parent-child relationship that integrates the child into the adoptive family and gives rise to rights and duties on the part of both parent and child.  This is not the case with adult adoptions.  To be sure, there may have been a parent-child relationship between the parties in the past, there is no present parent-child relationship, at least in the legal sense, and the adoption does not necessarily give rise to any rights or duties.  Instead, adult adoptions are usually concerned with inheritance rights.

The article also examines the use of adult adoption in Roman law, in the civil law systems of continental Europe and the United States.  In addition, it discusses the right of an adult adoptee to inherit in cases of intestacy and to take as the beneficiary of a class gift in a will or trust.  Finally, the Article identifies various types of adult adoption and proposes a series of rules to determine when adult adoptees should be allowed to take by intestacy or benefit from class gifts in will and trusts created by their adoptive parents or by members of their adoptive parents’ family.