Don’t see how. If you adopt them, then they’re legally your CHILDREN.
Unless, of course, I am wrong.
Or, as in the case I cited, an actual parental relationship has existed for years, and it’s emotionally important to at least three people (mom, grown kid and “dad”) that the relationship be formalized, even if they’re forced to wait until majority. There were a lot of happy tears that day - no one has any intent to scam anyone in that case.
Proving a “parental relationship” or emotional bond might be tough, but I see no need to limit that to children.
I was adopted a few days after birth. I found my biological mother when I turned 26, and she recently adopted me back. We completed the adoption (in Hawaii) in 2003.
No blood tests were required. Just lawyer’s fees and what not.
Large Marge, that is so cool! I can’t imagine how your newly adopted mother must feel!
You are way too quick to judge. I have been childless all of my life and I am sixty-two. My step-daughter, whose natural mother died long ago, and I have become good friends in the twenty years that I have known her. We plan to finalize her adoption sometime this year after her graduation from law school at age forty. It pleases all of us – including the grandchldren – for severall reasons. None of it involves scams.
Sure, it seems common sense. Adopt = children. But why should it? I have an adopted sister. Not legally adopted. My parents are dead. She only has one parent left, probably not long for the world. Why shouldn’t I be able to formalize my relationship with my sister? If it’s just a matter of sticking so-and-so in your will, why have the ability to adopt adults?
Just out of curiosity, were your adoptive parents still alive at the time? And if so, how did that work legally–can you have more than one legal set of parents? And how did they feel about it?
Sorry, you’ll have to check your state probate code. I know Florida has it. They are often called dower or elective share statutes.
Bolding mine. Unless your state permits an elective share for children (it’s possible but I know Florida does not), you can completely disinherit a child, adopted or otherwise. You can’t completely disinherit a spouse, though, because of elective share statutes.
Correct, but here we’re talking elective share. Divorce in some cases simply isn’t an option because a person can’t (or won’t) afford it. If you’ve got only 30k to your name, you split it in half and call it a day. But when you’re talking about splitting tens or hundreds of millions, it’s a different proposition. Plenty of wealthy people can’t afford to divorce simply because they hate their spouse, it’s just not good business. You may not have the liquidity you need, and dissolving your little tycoon empire just because you hate the person down the hall isn’t going to happen.
So, he or she is in a bind. If the marriage deteriorates, he or she can divorce, but that means property division, alimony and support. Problem. Or, stay married, in which case the elective share statute will kick in and and the other spouse will take a large percentage of the estate when you die. Problem. In other words, once you marry someone, you’re on the hook for a potential payout; they’ll get something when you divorce them or something when you die. On the other hand, by adopting, you can’t get divorced and theoretically you have the ability to deny them completely when you die.
For example: If things go poorly with your adoptee, you can stick her in the boathouse and give her a small allowance and tell her to leave you alone. Or hell, have her thrown off the premises…she’s an adult. She can’t divorce you because she’s not your wife. She can’t hang around waiting for you to die, because you already wrote her out of the will. She can run away, but she’d be doing you a favor.
Note that this is legal theory here, I’ve never tried to defend on of these arrangements (professionally or morally) and don’t know if anyone else has either. I’m sure an equitable remedy could be fashioned but I doubt it would amount to as much as might otherwise be claimed.
If it helps, think of it as using one section of family law to defeat several others, and then to checkmate part of the probate code.
Thanks for the tip but I already happen to be a lawyer so I don’t really need any advice on how to think about the law. I had forgotten about the elective share completely, I currently practice in a CP state and anyway, I no longer do estates and trusts (federal attorney).
There is no need to adopt someone to get out of the elective share because you could easily pre-nup your way out of it or create an inter vivos trust and funnel all the assets you wanted to protect into that. If you’re at the point where you want to protect your assets from a spouse then a pre-nup or trust makes way more sense given the established caselaw surrounding both…rather than attempting to fraudulently adopt someone. I just can’t imagine someone who wants to protect THAT much money being so unsophisticated as to try an adoption when they could go down the time honoured pre-nup + trust route. In fact, if you have that much money to protect, an adult adoption is a pretty badly bungled attempt given the time and statutory requirements (I posted my memory of IL’s requirements above) when you could just execute a contract.
So I surmised and I wasn’t giving you any advice. You asked questions and I answered them in an attempt to explain the concept, in which you had appeared to express interest. As for the rest of your response, I’m not very interested in debating the concept and wouldn’t in GQ in any event.
Though if you have on point and contrary legal authority, I’d love to read it. I’ve always been curious as to whether and how well the arrangement would survive attack.
Sorry I’m so late in answering this; I’ve just started a new job.
Yes, my adoptive mother is still alive, and the recent adoption means I’ll have no legal right to her estate, such as it is. It will also affect any decisions that may be made for her should she become incapacitated. That responsibility would now fall to my adoptive sister.
My adoptive mother doesn’t know. After months of deliberation, I finally decided the news would only hurt her, and I didn’t want to do that to her. On the flip side, it was absolutely vital that my bio mom be able to do this, and I, too, wanted to be reconnected not just emotionally and genetically, but legally.
Emotionally, it was a very complicated process. Legally, not so much.