Intestate Inheritance Rights for Adopted Children - Arkansas

Birth Parents in Relation to Adopted Person

Citation: Ann. Code § 9-9-215

The adoption decree relieves the birth parents of the adopted person of all parental rights and responsibilities and terminates all legal relationships between the adopted person and his or her birth relatives, including his or her birth parents, so that the adopted person thereafter is a stranger to his or her former relatives for all purposes including inheritance.

Adoptive Parents in Relation to Adopted Person

Citation: Ann. Code § 9-9-215

The adoption decree creates the relationship of parent and child between the adoptive parent and the adopted person, as if the adopted person were a legitimate blood descendant of the petitioner, for all purposes, including inheritance.

Adopted Persons Who Are Not Included in a Will

Citation: Ann. Code § 28-39-407

Whenever a child was adopted by a person after he or she has made his or her will, and the person dies leaving the adopted child not mentioned or provided for in his or her will, either specifically or as a member of a class, the person shall be deemed to have died intestate with respect to the child. The child shall be entitled to recover from the estate, in proportion to the amounts of the respective shares of other heirs, that portion of the estate which he or she would have inherited had there been no will.