Adoptetd children as beneficiaries

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? CA

I have an issue with my parents' trust. Some background, My father had two children from a previous marriage. Those two children were adopted by another family when they were both very young, and had not been in contact with their biological father for over 30 years. In the meantime, my father remarried and adopted me. I had been raised as an only child and my mother had always told me that I was the sole beneficiary. My parents had a trust written up, but it did not include a section for the beneficiary.

Do my father's biological children have any rights to my parents' estate? Do they have

As part of writing a trust, it has to identify WHO will get WHAT, and WHEN do they get it. You will have to read the specific details of how the trust was written, to know what your father had in mind.

Who is the Trustee for the trust? Do you have the complete copy? Was there a will associated with the trust? There is something missing from your information.

curb1 said:

Who is the Trustee for the trust? Do you have the complete copy? Was there a will associated with the trust? There is something missing from your information.

Click to expand...

Curb, I do have a complete copy of the trust, although it is not in my office right now. My father had a pour-over will in the back of the trust, but I am not sure what it said. It did say that my father had two biological children and identified them as his biological children, but the will did not list them as beneficiaries. I was named as trustee of the trust.

Are you listed anywhere as the sole beneficiary of the assets? Anywhere is there mention about the two biological children as being beneficiaries. As the trustee, your obligation is to follow the directives of the trust. Have you done that? I am very surprised that good instructions are not within the trust document concerning beneficiaries.

How much contact has your father had through the years with his biological children? Are they aware of his death? When did your parents die?

curb1 said:

Are you listed anywhere as the sole beneficiary of the assets? Anywhere is there mention about the two biological children as being beneficiaries. As the trustee, your obligation is to follow the directives of the trust. Have you done that? I am very surprised that good instructions are not within the trust document concerning beneficiaries.

How much contact has your father had through the years with his biological children? Are they aware of his death? When did your parents die?

Click to expand...

Curb,

My mother passed in 2006, my father in June of this year. There is mention of his biological children in his pour-over will, but it does not name them as beneficiaries. When each of my parents passed, I contacted an attorney to go through the trust and make sure that I had done everything correctly.

My father's children were adopted when they were very young, only a few years old. They re-connected with my parents about 10 years ago (after 30+ years), but the trust had already been written and it did not name them in the trust. They were with me and my father when my father passed away.

When you say it doesn't mention the beneficiaries, perhaps you are expecting people to be called out by name.... look for alternative language like "issue" , or "per stirpes", or "child", or "descendant".

I would guess that the best advice would to again go to the attorney to confirm the situation. I think it would be a terrific gesture on your part to give some meaningful mementos to the other step siblings. Even though they were young, it was a very important part of their life.

You might look at Probate Code Section 26 and 6451 for the rules if the trust doesn't say otherwise.

as has been mentioned, the duty of the trustee is to follow the directions of the trust.

if the trustee can not figure out what he is supposed to do, he needs to ask someone who has the legal knowledge to tell him.

In the pour-over will, it states in the declaration concerning children that my father has the following children from his marriage to my mother, and lists me. It also states that he has children, the issue of his previous marriage which terminated in divorce and names his other children. The will lists his other children with my father's last name struck-through and their new names from their adopted father have been written in with my parents' initials next to the names.

In the trust, under disposition on death, it states that whenever used herein, the terms child, issue, children and descendants include adopted issue, adopted child, natural children and natural descendants, and include descendants of adopted issue, adopted child, adopted children and adopted descendants.

My father had gone to an attorney after my mother passed away to make sure that the trust was handled correctly, and that attorney believed me to be the sole beneficiary due to the fact that my father's other two children had been adopted and estranged from my father.

After my father passed away, I went to that same attorney to make sure that the estate was handled properly, and the attorney confirmed that I remained to be the sole beneficiary due to the fact that his other two children had been adopted and estranged from my father.

Any advice or feedback on this is greatly appreciated.

What has been the reaction from the other children? Are they expecting something? Did they want to see the trust document? Do you live in the same area?

It sounds like the situation is under control, yet the impression is that you seemed unsettled. Why?

Please quote us the language devising everything to you.

it is proper and normal for a will to name all of the person's children, and all wives. this is for indentification purposes. so that mention in your pour over will is not out of the ordinary, nor does it indicate anything about who inherits what.

normally a pour-over will simply transfers all assets to the trust.

the language in your trust is also normal. it basically just says that the term "children" includes adpoted children. very often there will be a clause that also says something like all children born or adopted after the trust is created, are also considered to be children.

so at this point, what really remains is what tecate has asked.

what is the terminology of the trust, regarding who gets what.

the trust should list a set of beneficiaries with their given percentages, and then simply give these assets to these beneficiaries, or keep it in trust for the benefit of these beneficiaries.

in some way, the trust has to clearly state who the beneficiaries are, after the grantor dies. there is often a clause stating something that "anyone not mentioned was not forgotten, and is not included". if it is a child who is being disinherited, the trust may even name that child, so that there is no doubt, and would give the disinherited child basically no grounds to win a contested trust.