Intestate Inheritance Rights for Adopted Children - Michigan

Birth Parents in Relation to Adopted Person

Citation: Comp. Laws §§ 710.60; 700.2114

After entry of the adoption decree, an adopted child is no longer an heir-at-law of the birth parents or the lineal or collateral kindred of the birth parents.

The permanent termination of parental rights of a minor child by an order of a court of competent jurisdiction; by a release for purposes of adoption given by the parent, but not a guardian, to the Family Independence Agency or a licensed child-placing agency, or before a probate or juvenile court; or by any other process recognized by the law governing the parent-child status at the time of termination, excepting termination by emancipation or death, ends kinship between the parent whose rights are so terminated and the child for purposes of intestate succession by that parent from or through that child.

Adoptive Parents in Relation to Adopted Person

Citation: Comp. Laws §§ 710.60; 700.2114

After entry of the order of adoption, there is no distinction between the rights and duties of natural progeny and adopted persons, and the adopted person becomes an heir-at-law of the adopting parent or parents and an heir-at-law of the lineal and collateral kindred of the adopting parent or parents.

An adopted individual is the child of his or her adoptive parent or parents and not of his or her natural parents, but adoption of a child by the spouse of either natural parent has no effect on either the relationship between the child and that natural parent or the right of the child or a descendant of the child to inherit from or through the other natural parent. An individual is considered to be adopted for purposes of this subsection when a court of competent jurisdiction enters an interlocutory decree of adoption that is not vacated or reversed.

Adopted Persons Who Are Not Included in a Will

Citation: Comp. Laws §§ 700.2302; 700.2707

If a testator fails to provide in his or her will for a child adopted after the execution of his or her 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 what the child would have received had the testator died intestate, unless the will gave 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 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 testator's estate subject to all of the following:
  • The portion of the estate that 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 a share of the estate, limited to what 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.

The above does not apply if:

• It appears from the will that the omission was intentional.
• The testator provided for the omitted after-adopted child by transfer outside the will with the intent that the transfer be a substitute for a testamentary provision.

An adopted individual and his or her descendants, if appropriate to the class, are included in class gifts and other terms of relationship in accordance with the rules of intestate succession.