Intestate Inheritance Rights for Adopted Children - Texas

Birth Parents in Relation to Adopted Person

Citation: Estates Code § 201.054; Fam. Code § 162.507

The natural parent or parents of an adopted child and the kindred of the natural parent or parents may not inherit from or through the adopted child, but the adopted child inherits from and through the child's natural parent or parents, except as provided by § 162.507(c), Family Code.

A person who was adopted as an adult may not inherit from or through the adult's birth parent, nor may the birth parent inherit from or through the adopted adult.

Adoptive Parents in Relation to Adopted Person

Citation: Estates Code § 201.054; Fam. Code §§ 162.507; 162.017

For purposes of inheritance, an adopted child is regarded as the child of the adoptive parent or parents, and the adopted child and the adopted child's descendants inherit from and through the adoptive parent or parents and their kindred as if the adopted child were the natural child of the adoptive parent or parents. The adoptive parent or parents and their kindred inherit from and through the adopted child as if the adopted child were the natural child of the adoptive parent or parents. This section does not prevent an adoptive parent from disposing of the parent's property by will according to law.

An adopted child may, under the laws of descent and distribution, inherit from and through the adopting parents and their relatives, and the adopting parents and their family may inherit from and through such adopted child.

Adopted Persons Who Are Not Included in a Will

Citation: Estates Code §§ 255.051; 255.053; 255.054

A 'pretermitted child' means a testator's child who is born or adopted during the testator's lifetime or after the testator's death and after the execution of the testator's will.

If no provision is made in the testator's last will for any child who is living when the testator executes the will, a pretermitted child succeeds to the portion of the testator's separate and community estate, other than any portion of the estate devised to the pretermitted child's other parent, to which the pretermitted child would have been entitled if the testator had died intestate without a surviving spouse.

If a provision, whether vested or contingent, is made in the testator's last will for one or more children of the testator who are living when the testator executes the will, a pretermitted child is entitled only to a portion of the disposition made to children under the will that is equal to the portion the child would have received if the testator had included all of the testator's pretermitted children with the children on whom benefits were conferred under the will and given an equal share of those benefits to each child.

If a testator has no child living when the testator executes the testator's last will, a pretermitted child succeeds to the portion of the testator's separate and community estate, other than any portion of the estate devised to the pretermitted child's other parent, to which the pretermitted child would have been entitled if the testator had died intestate without a surviving spouse.