Intestate Inheritance Rights for Adopted Children - Arizona

Birth Parents in Relation to Adopted Person

Citation: Rev. Stat. §§ 8-117; 14-2114

The relationship of birth parent and adopted person is completely severed upon entry of the adoption decree, and all legal consequences of the relationship cease to exist, including the right of inheritance.

Adoption of a child by the spouse of either birth parent has no effect on the relationship between the child and that birth parent or on the right of the child or a descendant of the child to inherit from or through the other birth parent.

Adoptive Parents in Relation to Adopted Person

Citation: Rev. Stat. § 8-117

The adopted person is entitled to inherit from and through the adoptive parent, and the adoptive parent is entitled to the same from the adopted person, as though the child were born to the adoptive parents in lawful wedlock.

Adopted Persons Who Are Not Included in a Will

Citation: Rev. Stat. §§ 14-2705; 14-2302

A person who is adopted and that person's descendants, if appropriate to the class, are included in class gifts and other terms of relationship in accordance with intestate succession.

If a testator fails to provide by will for a child who is adopted after the testator executes the will, the omitted child receives a share in the estate as follows:

• If the testator had no child living when the testator executed the will, an omitted child receives a share in the estate equal in value to what the child would have received if the testator had died intestate, unless the will devised all or substantially all of the estate to the other parent of the omitted child and that other parent survives the testator and is entitled to take under the will.
• If the testator had one or more children living when the testator executed the will, and the will devised property or an interest in property to one or more of the then-living children, an omitted child is entitled to share in the testator's estate as follows:
  • The portion of the testator's estate in which the omitted child is entitled to share is limited to bequests made to the testator's then-living children under the will.
  • The share of the testator's estate that the child would have received if the testator had included all omitted children with the children to whom devises were made under the will and had given an equal share of the estate to each child.

However, if it appears from the will that the omission was intentional or that the testator provided for the omitted child by transfer outside the will and the intent that the transfer be in lieu of a testamentary provision is shown by the testator's statements or can be reasonably inferred from the amount of the transfer or other evidence, no share in the estate will be received.