NYC Estate Planning Lawyer: Estate Planning and Adopted Kids

Estate planning mistakes can leave your adopted child, however much you love him, without any cent.

Each state has rules about inheritance, which means you need the services of an established estate planning attorney to interpret the rules for you. They also guide you on coming up with the best estate plan.

When you don’t understand the different laws, you might end up disinheriting your adopted kids.

When you adopt a kid, your goals are to treat them like your biological kids. It is therefore natural that as an adoptive parent u expect that the kids are afforded the same treatment like your own kids.

Sadly, this is not usually the case.

Let us look at some of the issues that make succession for an adopted child hard.

Confusing Language

When you have adopted kids, the law has different clauses that protect them. However, the wording can be a bit confusing, making it imperative that you come up with precise wording for the same. The words that you choose to use need to be carefully chosen so that you define the family arrangement.

This is why you need an estate planning lawyer in your corner at this moment.
Most parents don’t differentiate the biological kids from the adopted ones, which mean that they overlook the legal terms that need to be used when drafting the documents.

When coming up with the estate plan, you need to have distinctions between your biological kids, step kids and even adopted kids. Otherwise these documents might end up causing a lot of conflicts between the kids when you aren’t around to clarify anything.

You don’t need to assume that just because the adopted kids have lived under you for some time that they will be handled using the standard documents. It is good to consult your lawyers before you come up with a plan.
Coming up with a Will

One of the concerns of the parent is whether the adopted child will be provided for in the same way a biological child is provided for upon death of the parent. The good thing is that the state allows you to include the adopted child in your beneficiary list. When the will comes into effect, then the law will dictate the disposition of the estate as well as how the kids will get protected.

Some state laws recognize the adopted kids to be at the same level as the biological children, while other laws don’t recognize this.
Have Clear Instructions

The first and biggest step in planning for your adopted children is to approach a lawyer and financial professionals to make sure you have a comprehensive financial plan in place. The plan need to give instructions on how the assets in the estate need to be used as well as naming a guardian for any minors that are under your care.

If you have wills and trusts in the plan, make sure they are updated with relevant information to make sure the kids are included in the succession.

Without having a valid estate plan, the assets will be distributed according to the laws of the state, and not by your wishes. If you don’t have a plan, you won’t choose the person to oversee the welfare of the kids when you are gone, which means that you leave everything to the government to assign one.
Review Your List of Beneficiaries

When you have an estate plan to implement, it is vital that you review and update the list of beneficiaries every now and then. Problems cone up when the parent forgets to add the names of the adopted child to the beneficiary list and hopes that the law will automatically give them something out of the estate.

This is a wrong notion, because unless the will or trust has the names of the child as a beneficiary, then the assets are distributed only to the beneficiaries that are named. The language in use need to specify that the word ‘child” refers to all the children including the adopted one.

If your adopted child has special needs, you need to make sure the plan is amended to include a special trust for him.
Final Thoughts

Adopted children need to be treated the same way as your biological children. This is because you have taken them under your wing and you need to make sure that you secure their future. Work with an estate planning attorney to make sure your child gets his right.