Invalid Will? Adopted children..

PasturesNew

Sounds like the husband was legally the correct person to inherit the whole estate. Unless she was named in the will there'd be no inheritance. Without a will the husband gets the lot.

Value being lower could indicate big debts (e.g. mortgage).

P.S. You did waffle on, a lot, so I skimped.

Yorkshireman99

winnie85 wrote: »

Background to the nature of this interest in will:
The argument my friends social worker made, was that though the adoption broke down, this was due to the mental instability of the adopted parents ( she was removed from the family for physical abuse as an adolescent) and thus the moral birthright of my friend to belong to a stable and healthy guardianship was circumvented, and thus spent the remainder of her life without moral / financial support and with emotional difficulty from the circumstances that played out. So by some, you could say the interest in this will could go toward financial redress from a devastating cirsumtance to a young persons life. That is of course taking it into another thread all together, but to give a background. Being a friend of this person I am of course working from a moral code, but hence looking for proper and definite financial legal guidance here. Anyone with hardcore experience with these exact kind of cases?

Sorry to say this is a complete non starter. If there was a claim it would have had to be made within six years of the time the events took place. In any case just because a child was adopted does not in validate the will in England and Wales. Your "friend" should forget the whole thing.

winnie85

I wonder why a judge would not see it that way? As the point in adopting is to supply the full parental needs of a child that would otherwise not be provided for. Otherwise it could have been arranged by fostering. Isnt there any legal weight to the act of adopting??

Depending on the outcome of advice the next step would be acessing the funds with which to carry it into courts if necessary. Im not sure how much these things would cost and if she has the kind of funds needed.

The 2nd note I must make. My friend was found to have been forfeited from her natural birth mothers estate due to the removal of this ancestral link on adoption. ( Her birth mother later came in contact and made a breif relationship with my friend, but on her death it was made clear that intestacy rules could not apply as she was now adopted). Seems the law recognises the adoption in come cirumstances!??

Gingernutty

Surely, if the father is still alive, then, if he dies without a will, she inherits?

bouicca21

Wills are invalidated by a subsequent marriage, not by the birth or adoption of a child. Indeed when I made my own will, providing for various eventualities, the solicitor specifically asked me whether I wanted it written to take into account the possibility of providing for children as yet unborn.

The adoptee has no claim, unless she were a dependent, which clearly she wasn't.

winnie85

What makes a "dependant" ??

POPPYOSCAR

PasturesNew wrote: »

Sounds like the husband was legally the correct person to inherit the whole estate. Unless she was named in the will there'd be no inheritance. Without a will the husband gets the lot.

Value being lower could indicate big debts (e.g. mortgage).

P.S. You did waffle on, a lot, so I skimped.

Not strictly true.


As already said depends on the value of the estate.
https://www.gov.uk/inherits-someone-dies-without-will/y/england-and-wales/yes/yes/yes

bouicca21

Financial dependence.

elsien

The law does recognise the adoption. But it is up to the person making the will to ensure it is updated every few years or after any major changes.
In the same way that if I made a will leaving everything to a husband, got divorced and didn't change it, he'd still stand to inherit.
Life circumstances, as a rule, do not invalidate wills.

iammumtoone

I think you are thinking too much into the fact she was adopted.

It is correct that as an adopted child she has equal right as a biological child. But in this case it appears that if she was their biological child there would be no claim to assets either. She doesn't get more rights as she was adopted nor does she get extra rights as she was badly treated (not trying to make light of it I am sure it was awful for her but it is relevant in the question you are asking)