Intestate Inheritance Rights for Adopted Children - Connecticut

Birth Parents in Relation to Adopted Person

Citation: Gen. Stat. § 45a-731(6), (8)

The birth parent(s) and their relatives shall have no rights of inheritance from or through the adopted person, nor shall the adopted person have any rights of inheritance from or through the birth parent(s) or their relatives.

When one of the birth parents of a minor child has died, adoption of the child shall not affect the rights of the child to inherit from or through the deceased parent and the deceased parent's relatives.

Adoptive Parents in Relation to Adopted Person

Citation: Gen. Stat. § 45a-731(1)-(3)

A final decree of adoption shall have the following effect:

• All rights, duties, and other legal consequences of the birth relation of child and parent thereafter exist between the adopted person and the adoptive parent(s) and the relatives of such adoptive parent(s). The adopted person shall be treated as if they were the birth child of the adoptive parent(s).
• The adoptive parent(s) and the adopted person shall have rights of inheritance from and through each other. Such rights extend to adopted relatives and the heirs of the adopted person.
• The adopted person and the birth children and other adopted children of the adoptive parent(s) shall be treated as siblings, having rights of inheritance from and through each other. Such inheritance rights shall be extended to the heirs of all the children.

Adopted Persons Who Are Not Included in a Will

Citation: Gen. Stat. § 45a-257b

If a testator fails to provide in his or her will for any of his or her children who were adopted after the execution of the will, including any child who is born as a result of artificial insemination to which the testator consented and any child born after the death of the testator, the omitted after-born or after-adopted child receives a share in the estate as follows:

• If the testator had no child living when the will was executed, an omitted or after-adopted child receives a share in the estate equal in value to that which he or she would have received had the testator died intestate, unless the will bequeathed all or substantially all of the estate to the other parent of the omitted child and that other parent survives the testator.
• If the testator had one or more children living when he or she executed the will, and the will bequeathed property or an interest in property to one or more of the then-living children, an omitted after-adopted child is entitled to share in the testator's estate as follows:
  • Unless it appears from the will that the testator intended to make a limited provision that specifically applied only to his or her living children at the time the will was executed, the after-adopted child receives the portion of the estate that he or she would have had the testator died intestate.
  • The omitted after-adopted child is entitled to receive the share of the estate, as limited above, that the child would have received had the testator included all omitted after-born and after-adopted children with the children to whom bequests were made under the will and had given an equal share of the estate to each child.

If it appears that the omission was intentional or the testator provided for the child by transfer outside the will with the intent that the transfer be in lieu of a testamentary provision, the child shall receive no share of the estate.