Intestate Inheritance Rights for Adopted Children - Hawaii

Birth Parents in Relation to Adopted Person

Citation: Rev. Stat. § 578-16

The former legal parent(s) of an adopted individual and any other former legal kindred shall not be considered to be related to the individual as provided in the Uniform Probate Code.

All legal duties and rights between the adopted person and his or her former legal parent(s) shall cease from the time of the adoption, unless the adopted person is adopted by the spouse of a legal parent. In such case, the rights of inheritance between the adopted person and the legal parent and the legal relatives of the parent shall continue.

Adoptive Parents in Relation to Adopted Person

Citation: Rev. Stat. §§ 578-16; 560:2-114

An adopted person and his or her adopting parent(s) shall sustain towards each other the legal relationship of parent(s) and child and shall have all the rights and duties of that relationship, including the rights of inheritance from and through each other and the adopting parents' legal kindred.

Adopted Persons Who Are Not Included in a Will

Citation: Rev. Stat. §§ 578-16; 560:2-302; 560:2-705

If a testator fails to provide in his or her will for any child who was adopted after the execution of the will, the omitted after-adopted child receives a share in the estate as follows:

• If the testator had no child living when he or she executed the will, an omitted after-adopted child receives a share in the estate equal in value to that which the child 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 and is entitled to inherit under the will.
• If the testator had one or more children living when he or she executed the will, and the will gave 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 estate as follows:
  • The portion of the estate in which the omitted after-adopted child is entitled to share is limited to bequests made to the testator's then-living children under the will.
  • 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 and had given an equal share of the estate to each child.

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

Adopted individuals and their respective descendants, if appropriate to the class, are included in class gifts and other terms of relationship in accordance with the rules for intestate succession.