Intestate Inheritance Rights for Adopted Children - Oregon

Birth Parents in Relation to Adopted Person

Citation: Rev. Stat. § 112.175(2)

An adopted person shall cease to be treated as the child of any person other than the adopted person's adoptive parents for all purposes of intestate succession, except in the following circumstances:

• If a person is adopted by a stepparent or a domestic partner of a parent, the adopted person shall continue also to be treated, for all purposes of intestate succession, as the child of the parent who is the spouse or other domestic partner of the adoptive parent.
• If a parent of a person dies, and the other parent of the person marries or enters into a domestic partnership, and the person is adopted by a stepparent or the other domestic partner, the adopted person shall continue also to be treated, for all purposes of intestate succession, as the child of the deceased parent.

Adoptive Parents in Relation to Adopted Person

Citation: Rev. Stat. §§ 112.175(1); 112.185

An adopted person and the issue and kindred of the adopted person shall take by intestate succession from the adoptive parents and their issue and kindred. The adoptive parents and their issue and kindred shall take by intestate succession from the adopted person and the issue and kindred of the adopted person as though the adopted person were the biological child of the adoptive parents.

For all purposes of intestate succession, a person who has been adopted more than once shall be treated as the child of the parents who have most recently adopted the person and, except as otherwise provided in this section, shall cease to be treated as the child of the previous adoptive parents. The person shall continue also to be treated as the child of a previous parent or previous adoptive parent other than the most recent adoptive parents only to the extent provided in § 112.175(2), and for the purpose of applying that subsection with reference to a previous adoptive parent, 'parent' in that subsection means the previous adoptive parent.

Adopted Persons Who Are Not Included in a Will

Citation: Rev. Stat. §§ 112.405; 112.195

A 'pretermitted child' means a child of a testator who is born, adopted, or conceived after the execution of the will of the testator, who is neither provided for in the will nor in any way mentioned in the will, and who survives the testator. If a testator has one or more children living when the testator executes a will and no provision is made in the will for those children, a pretermitted child shall not take a share of the estate.

If a testator has one or more children living when the testator executes a will and provision is made in the will for those children, a pretermitted child is entitled to share in the estate as follows:

• The pretermitted child may share only in the portion of the estate devised to the living children by the will.
• The share of each pretermitted child shall be the total value of the portion of the estate given to the living children, divided by the number of pretermitted children plus the number of living children for whom provision is made in the will.

If a testator has no child living when the testator executes a will, a pretermitted child shall take a share of the estate as though the testator had died intestate, unless the will devised all or substantially all of the estate to the other parent of the pretermitted child and that other parent survives the testator and is entitled to take under the will.

All references in a will to an individual or member of a class described generically by terms such as children, issue, grandchildren, descendants, heirs, next-of-kin, grandparents, brothers, nephews, or other relatives shall include any person who would be treated as related for all purposes of intestate succession, except that an adopted person so included must have been adopted as a minor or after having been a member of the household of the adoptive parent while a minor.