Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Virginia
Rights of adult children when there is no will
My father remarried after my mother's death.(myself and one brother from the marriage to my mother) He has one adult child from the second marriage.We have since learned he also has an adult illegitimate child that he and the mother agreed to give up for adoption. My father does not have a will.What will the distribution be?
2 Answers from Attorneys
Re: Rights of adult children when there is no will
If he died in Virginia, here's what the Virginia Code says:
First. To the surviving spouse of the intestate, unless the intestate is survived by children or their descendants, one or more of whom are not children or their descendants of the surviving spouse, in which case two-thirds of such estate shall pass to all the intestate's children and their descendants and the remaining one-third of such estate shall pass to the intestate's surviving spouse.
Second. If there be no surviving spouse, then the whole shall go to all the intestate's children and their descendants.
Virginia Code � 64.1-1
Re: Rights of adult children when there is no will
If your father's illegitimate child was given up for adoption, his parental rights with respect to this child would have been necessarily severed concomitantly with this child's right to inherit anything from your father by way of intestate succession.
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