Right to inherit from birth parent

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Right to inherit from birth parent

If an adoption took place in the state
of Kansas that recognized the right of
an adopted child to inherit from the
birth parent but said birth parent dies
in Georgia would the rules of the state
of the adoption have standing or the
state the birth parent died in since the
adopted child still lived in Kansas ?

Asked on December 11, 2017 under Estate Planning, Kansas

Answers:

SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney

Answered 6 years ago | Contributor

1) If there is a will, that controls and overrides the right of chidren to inherit under the law: that is because a will determines who gets what, and the law allows a person to disinherit children. So you would need to look to the existence and terms of any will to see if you might inherit as first step. Most likely, the terms of the will, however, will not leave anything to a child put up for adoption, so if there is a will, it is *very* unlikely you would inherit.
2) The KA law you refer to affect "intestate succession," or who inherits what when there is no will. But intestate succession law is "local": every state has its own. The law of the state where the birth parent resided (his/her primary residence; place he or she spent 50% + 1 day of his/her time) at the time of his/her death controls what happens to his/her estate after death when he/she had no will. So you need to look to the laws of the state of the deceased's residence, not the state where you were adopted, so see if, in the event of there being no will, an adopted child would inherit. (After all, KA cannot tell GA what to do in terms of GA's inheritance law, for example.)


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