Inheritance to adopted child

[harlacem0507]

This is a very delicate/awkward post but I just need some advice.

My grandfather died 3 weeks ago, expected, a good age of 93, we were all with him. His will stipulates that his house/money goes to his 3 children, should any of them pass away before he did, the money that child was due to get goes to their children.

My dad passed away 3 years ago suddenly. I'm still grieving and will never get over it. However, my parents adopted me when I was 4 years old. My uncle (he's awful) has dropped hints that he will contest the will because I am not a biological child and I shouldn't get my father's share. My question is, will be have a case? The best of it is, I'm not bothered about the money, I have money and my OH has a good job and it won't be millions but still a good amount obviously, but it hurts more because he obviously doesn't see me as 'real' family? I mean that in itself just devastates me but what also bothers me is that I don't want him to get my dad's share either because he doesn't deserve it after what he has said about his own brothers daughter. Does it matter if I'm adopted?

What a shit your uncle is. I'm sorry for both your losses.

When my dad died, my aunt and uncle took my grandmother, who had Alzheimer's, to a solicitor to write a new will that made sure I didn't inherit my dad's share, or anything else. It was a very painful discovery as I loved my grandmother very much, and I was (and still am) struggling so much with grief for my dad.

Any decent aunt or uncle would look out for you after losing a parent, not try to make your life more difficult.

OP, so many people are asking who the executors are because if it is him, it poses a risk.

There is very lax (non existent) supervision of executors, and if it his him he might well just not pay you the money, or not your full amount, and you would then need to get a copy of the will and take legal action to make him comply. You said there is another of your Dad’s siblings? Are they one of the executors?

The child would have no claim. No courts needed, assuming legal adoption took place.

Wow what an awful person he is. No you are still your dad’s child and as an adoption is a legal process he won’t be able to contest this. Sorry for your loss xx

Adoption severs the legal ties between a child and their birth family and transfers them to the adoptive family. So adopted children have no claim on inheritance from their birth family and can only inherit if named in a will.

I also think that your uncle should be aware that it's pretty standard for wills to be worded in this way. My grandparents, parents and indeed our wills are worded like this and in the absence of a will, the inheritance hierarchy follows this.
Your uncle has shown his true colours though hasn't he? What a nasty peice of work he is.
Let's hope he wastes some of his money seeking legal advice

Unfortunately, in my experience, inheritance (even a sum as small as £200) can bring out the worst in people. Stand your ground. Your dad and grandfather viewed you as their family. What your uncle tries to do will only show his true colours. Nasty piece of work. I hope it works out for you with minimal stress.

I am an adoptive mother, if any of my siblings thought this about my child I would be so angry. They don't though, your uncle is a knob. Please try not to let it get to you.

Even with a will, children still inherit from a grandparent in place of a deceased parent even if the will doesn’t say this.

The will has to specifically say grandchildren don’t inherit in place of a deceased parent for that to be the case.

Solicitors put it in because otherwise non-legal executors can get themselves in a terrible muddle. It’s one of the very few (possibly only) circumstances where executors have to look outside the will for what to do with the estate.

For any legacies to anyone else, if the beneficiary predeceases the person who made the will, the money does not go to the heirs of the beneficiary - it goes back into the residue of the estate covered by the will. So you can see it can be confusing!

That's shocking - What a disgusting man. And no, he wouldn't have a leg to stand on. How bloody dare he!

Maybe donate some of the money to a charity uncle would hate😂

Sorry for the loss of your grandfather and dad, something about inheritances can make some people just utterly evil. When my nan died all the grabby members of the family came crawling out of the woodwork and it made a hard and stressful time just utterly infuriating- it’s not what you want at all when you’re grieving!

At least this confirms for you even further that your uncle isn’t someone you need in your life! I’m adopted too. The whole point of adoption is ensuring you have the exact rights a biological child would have, if he had enough braincells he could have googled this easily to get his answer. Your uncle sounds awful.

Thank you all for your amazing support and advice, I'm so tempted to send the money to another country as he's quite racist too so that would really piss him off but I'm giving half of it to my mum as I feel it's the right thing to do seeing as it would have initially gone to her and my dad anyway, the money I get will go towards moving house as we have a very cramped home at the moment!

The 2% that said I was being unreasonable stated it was mistake 🥰 so I feel 100% supported and my feelings validated! Thank you all.

He's never been a nice man but after this I know he'll probably be ostracized somewhat, my auntie and him never got on, she made an effort after my dad passed away but her and my dad were the close siblings. He's always been the odd one out because he's so awful and the rest of my family aren't! His own daughters I'm quite close with so I'm not sure how that will go down, I don't think they'll be very happy with him and embarrassed by his behaviour. God, money really is the root of all evil!

The only circumstances where there can be an issue is much less common today - namely where a couple took in a baby and claimed him or her as their child but there is no legal adoption (more common when having a child out of wedlock was shameful and a child would be passed to socially acceptable parents).

In that case, the child wouldn’t inherit. It could get very messy if the child didn’t even know there had been an informal adoption.

However, this almost never happens today as the schools / doctors etc require legal proof of parentage.

I've just thought, I mean I was adopted in 1992, my mum has the adoption certificate somewhere, am I gonna hunt that out to get that as proof then? Because I don't think my name or any of us grandchildren are named specifically in the will just that it goes to the child's child/ren

Your father passed three years ago and the estate isn't wrapped up yet? Why?

Don't worry about the twat of an uncle; he hasn't got a leg to stand on. If he wants to waste a bit of his money on getting a lawyer to tell him that, laugh and ignore.

It's not my dad's estate it's my grandad's

Once probate is granted, the will can be viewed online. It’s public info and costs a few pound. That way you will know the terms.

www.gov.uk/search-will-probate

Possibly. It would be reasonable for a solicitor executor to ask for birth certificates to confirm someone is a child or grandchild of the deceased and an adoption certificate has the same legal standing.

Edited to say: If you do need to provide a copy, keep hold of the original and send off a certified copy (any solicitor can do it for you for either £5 or £10 - can’t remember which).

What @Cakeandcardio said. Money really does bring the worst out in people. It isn’t always that people don’t like each other - they just see the pound signs and will do anything to have the money, even if it’s not there’s. Make sure you don’t give in and make spend the money on what makes you happy xx

This. At least you know now what kind of person your uncle is and you can choose to have nothing to do with him. Greed and the prospect of an inheritance bring out the worst in some people.

I hope you are reassured from this thread . Firstly that he has no Legal case and it won’t go any further once he’s met with his solictor. Also it’s not you personally he would be taking to court, he would be challenging the validity of the will. So it’s not your case to fight.

And second that all decent people consider adoptees to be family members just the same as everyone else.

Where there s will there s a relative ! So the old saying goes .Honestly how greedy can some people be? I would as PP say get advice from a Solicitor .I think he hasnt got any case.Also!" At least it gets split 2 ways now! "what a thing to say.Just dont see him any more hes no loss

Slightly off topic but if you are intending to give half to your mum, explore getting a deed of variation which means there will not be any tax due. We have just done this free with an online lawyer

Urgh, your uncle IS despicable.

Even though you plan to share the money with your mother (which is lovely of you), you could still tell him that you’re sending it all to a charity overseas (or to refugees in this country maybe?) just for the satisfaction of really annoying him.

As long as the OP lives 7 years after the gift and/or it falls with in the nil rate band of her estate for inheritance tax, there would be no tax due anyway.

Also, if we are talking about a large estate, the nil rate inheritance tax residence band only covers leaving the property to direct descendants.

As a DIL isn’t covered, I can’t think of a deed of variation that wouldn’t at best have no effect on tax and at worst significantly increase the tax bill.