Intestate Inheritance Rights for Adopted Children - Rhode Island

Birth Parents in Relation to Adopted Person

Citation: Gen. Laws § 15-7-17

The birth parents of the adopted child shall be deprived of all legal rights respecting the child, and the child shall be freed from all obligations of maintenance and obedience respecting his or her birth parents, except it will not deprive an adopted child of the right to inherit from and through his or her birth parents in the same manner as other birth children, provided that the decree of adoption shall in no way affect all legal rights of a birth parent respecting the child and all obligations of the child of maintenance and obedience respecting the birth parent if the birth parent is legally married to the adopting parent at the time of the decree.

Adoptive Parents in Relation to Adopted Person

Citation: Gen. Laws § 15-7-16

A child lawfully adopted shall be deemed the child of the adoptive parent(s) for the purpose of inheritance by the child and his or her descendants from the parent(s), and by the adoptive parent(s) and their lineal and collateral relatives from the child.

When an adopted child is related by blood to the parent or parents by adoption, he or she and his or her descendants shall be entitled to inherit from and through the parent or parents only as an adopted child or descendants of an adopted child and not by virtue of the blood relationship.

Adopted Persons Who Are Not Included in a Will

This issue is not addressed in the statutes reviewed.