Wills with children adopted at birth

[whiteglovetest]

We will be doing wills soon and have 2 children together (married 25 years). DH has another child, now a man in his 30's who he has never met. The mum spilt with DH and she met and married someone else whilst pregnant. The child was adopted by the new man and has his name etc and was raised by him. (DH has never had any contact whatsoever and they ceased CM payments from DH after about 6 months after the child was born). I guess they wanted to cut ties. DH feels a lot of guilt but genuinely wanted the child to grow up in a stable family so just kept away.

So we have found out that he does know that DH is his (biol) father but hasn't tried to make any contact.

So my legal questions are - Does this man have a claim on DH's estate when he dies? Do you we need to include him in any way in the will (to avoid a claim)?

It feels like there's no right answer here. Ignoring the son completely feels very wrong, but leaving him a bequest smacks of 'I couldn't be arsed finding you whilst I was alive, so here's some cash'. Likewise giving an equal share of your estate to a sibling your own children have never met would also be deeply odd.

Assuming he doesn't want to make contact with the son now, I would probably opt for the small bequest with a letter explaining why he felt it was best not to get in touch.

Sorry I'm using the app for the first time. It's odd! A few have asked re the CM. After the baby was born, DH paid cm through child maintenance *ive forgotten the old name for it. Letters just went to him from the department and it was taken directly from his pay the usual way. Then after about 6 months he got a letter from CM saying they were closing the case and the mum had decided to cease contact.

He won’t be named on the birth certificate as unless married the father has to be present to have his name added. The mother’s file in relation to the adoption may have named him though.

Why wouldn’t you want your child to have anything? I appreciate he doesn’t know him but at least he would be acknowledging his existence and that he has thought about him over the years.

That question has no bearing on the OPs original point

He's your husband's biological child. I don't see why he wouldn't leave him something, especially if he's missed years of child support. I think it's absolutely miserable to cut him out.

especially if he's missed years of child support.

He paid all the child support he was asked to pay. The case was closed by the Child Support Agency (or predecessor at the time). The mother married someone else whilst pregnant and the OP seems to think that the child was adopted, although this couldn't have happened without her DH's knowledge. (He may be a bit vague on the details here because he doesn't want to admit having willingly given a child up for adoption?).

Lots of possibilities, including DH isn't the father. There was an adoption and he's downplaying it to OP. CSA closed the case because DH wasn't on the birth certificate and the mother didn't want DNA testing. To find out for sure would mean doing a lot more digging than OP may want to.

And why wouldn't you want your husband's son to have an equal share of inheritance?

He won’t be if they weren’t married. Both parents have to attend unless married.

Doesn’t he want to see his son?

Sorry not correct to state this for the UK.

Scottish law is different and children cannot be disinherited.

Drat. Zombie thread