Intestate Inheritance Rights for Adopted Children - Minnesota

Birth Parents in Relation to Adopted Person

Citation: Ann. Stat. § 259.59

The birth parents shall be relieved of all parental responsibilities and shall not have any rights over the adopted person or the adopted person's property.

The child shall not owe the birth parents or their relatives any legal duty, nor shall the child inherit from the birth parents or their family, except that the adoption of a child by a stepparent shall not in any way change the status of the relationship between the child and the child's birth parent who is the spouse of the petitioning stepparent.

If a parent dies and a child is subsequently adopted by a stepparent who is the spouse of a surviving parent, any rights of inheritance of the child or the child's issue from or through the deceased parent of the child that existed at the time of the death of that parent shall not be affected by the adoption.

Adoptive Parents in Relation to Adopted Person

Citation: Ann. Stat. § 259.59

By virtue of the adoption, the adopted person shall inherit from the adoptive parent(s) or their relatives as though the adopted person were the birth child of the adoptive parent(s).

If the adopted person dies intestate, the adoptive parent(s) and their relatives shall inherit the adopted person's estate.

Adopted Persons Who Are Not Included in a Will

Citation: Ann. Stat. §§ 524.2-302; 524.2-705

If a testator's will fails to provide 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 the will was executed, 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 gave all or substantially all 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 will was executed, 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 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 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 after-adopted child by transfer outside the will with the intent that the transfer be in lieu of a testamentary provision.

Adopted persons 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.