Pg 5

Question 1

How does it work if the decedent declares in a contemporaneous writing that a gift is an advancement?

Answer 1

If at the time he makes a gift he also makes a contemporaneous writing that says the gift is an advancement against that heir’s share of his estate, or that its value will be deducted from the value of that heir’s share of the estate, as long as this is made in writing at the same time as the gift, then it will stop the heir from taking a portion or all of his share at the death of the decedent.

Question 2

What is involved in an advancement if an heir acknowledges in writing that a gift will be deducted?

Answer 2

If the heir at any time before the death of the decedent acknowledges in writing that the gift will be deducted from the value of his share of the estate, because this is a statement against his own interest, it is accepted as true whenever it is said.

Question 3

What is the default with regard to an inter vivos gift being an advancement?

Answer 3

The default is that it is not an advancement and will not be deducted from an intestate share unless the decedent declares in a contemporaneous writing that it is an advancement or the heir acknowledges in a writing that it was an advancement.

Question 4

Does it count for an advancement if the decedent or the heir just make an oral statement that the gift was an advancement?

Answer 4

No, it must be in writing, but you do not need to use the word “advancement,“ you just have to express the nature of the gift being counted against that person’s intestate share.

Question 5

What is the requirement with regard to intention for advancements?

Answer 5

There had to be the intent at the time that the gift was made that it be a gift.

Question 6

Would a payment for someone’s education or the support of a child usually be considered an advancement?

Answer 6

Not generally

Question 7

What is hotchpot with regard to advancements?

Answer 7

If a lifetime gift is deemed to be an advancement of the at death share, the property at death all goes into a hotchpot, where you add up the intestate estate and all of the advancements and divide it equally. Advancements are than deducted from what is left to give.

Question 8

I.e.: If A, B, and C are kids of the decedent, and his intestate estate is $80,000 and he made a $10,000 gift to A that was an advancement, what would the result look like under hotchpot for advancement?

Answer 8

You take the $80,000 plus the $10,000 and that equals a $90,000 hot pot. Each kid is entitled to $30,000, and because A already got $10,000, now his inheritance is just $20,000. The other two get the full $30,000.

Question 9

What is the limit on the hotchpot if someone gets more than their hotchpot share?

Answer 9

If someone got more than their hotchpot share, they do not have to pay it back at death, they just get nothing.

Question 10

If A, B, and C are the kids of the decedent, and his intestate estate is $80,000, and during is lifetime A got a $70,000 advancement, what happens under hotchpot?

Answer 10

You add together $80,000 plus $70,000 and that equals $150,000, so each sibling should get about $50,000. But they already got $70,000, so A is entirely left out, and the rest is divided by the other kids. This means that B and C each get $40,000.

Question 11

Everyone who stands to inherit from a decedent through intestacy does so through what?

Answer 11

A series of parent-child relationships that connect the decedent to an heir through blood.

Question 12

What happens with half-blood relatives with regard to intestacy?

Answer 12

They inherit the same share as if they were whole blood

Question 13

If a husband and wife have one child, and then the wife dies, and the husband remarries and has two more children, and then both he and his second wife die, and one of their children dies, how do you distribute his estate?

Answer 13

His two remaining kids each get half of his estate

Question 14

How are adopted children treated under intestacy?

Answer 14

A legal adoption establishes a parent-child relationship between the parent and the adopted child. This creates inheritance between the adopted parents and the adopted child and usually severs the parent-child relationship between the child and his natural parents. The majority rule is that the child only takes from his adopted parents and is reborn into his adopted family.

Question 15

What is the exception to traditional inheritance rules for stepparents?

Answer 15

If an adoption happens by a stepparent who is the spouse of a natural parent and the other natural parent is still part of the child’s life, then the adoptive child can inherit from both his adoptive parent and his natural parents. But only two parents can inherit from the child.

Question 16

If a husband and wife have a child, and then they divorce, and the husband remarries and his wife raises the child as her own and legally adopts the child, and then the child dies, who inherits from the child?

Answer 16

The father and the adopted mother would inherit, but the biological mother would not because only two parents can inherit from an adopted child.

Question 17

If a husband and wife have a child, and then they divorce, and the husband remarries and his wife raises the child as her own and legally adopts the child, and then the biological mother dies, could the child inherit from her?

Answer 17

Yes because adopted kids can inherit from more than two parents.

Question 18

What is the rationale behind the stepparent adoption exception to intestacy?

Answer 18

The law presumes that a natural parent does not relinquish a connection between his child and he would still want his child to inherit from him and the law does not want the child to be worse off than other kids that stay with their biological parents

Question 19

What is the exception that allows adopted kids to inherit from more than one parent?

Answer 19

This occurs when the adoption follows the death of one or more of the natural parents. Then the natural parent must have lived as a parent with the child, and the law presumes that the natural parents would have wanted their child to inherit and that the adoption was the result of an unwanted disruption to the natural family.

Question 20

If a mother and father have one child, but the mom dies and the dad can’t provide for the child alone, so he put the child up for adoption and the child gets adopted by a husband and wife. Generally adoption would terminate the parent-child relationship with the father, but what exception allows it to be different here?

Answer 20

The exception for a child to be able to inherit from more than one parent when an adoption follows the death of one of the natural parents. Here the child could inherit from his adoptive parents and from his biological dad because this adoption came as a result of the death of his mom.

Question 21

Is it possible to adopt an adult?

Answer 21

Yes

Question 22

What is fostering?

Answer 22

When someone besides the natural parent raises a child as his own, but doesn’t legally adopt the child.

Question 23

In what situation would fostering create a parent-child relationship?

Answer 23

• if the relationship began during the child’s minority, and
  – continued through the joint lifetimes of the child and the parent figure, and
  – it was established by clear and convincing evidence
  – that the parent figure would’ve adopted the child if there wasn’t some legal barrier preventing it

Question 24

If mom and dad have a kid and then they get divorced, and the dad remarries when the child is 10, and the new wife raises the child and wants to adopt the child, but his mom won’t let her, and then the child dies, could the new wife share in the child’s estate?

Answer 24

Only if she can show by clear and convincing evidence that she would have adopted the child if it were not for the mom’s refusal.

Question 25

What do you have to watch out for with fostering?

Answer 25

Once the child reaches 18, the natural parents no longer stop them from being adopted by someone else, so if someone else wanted to adopt that child, they could, and if they didn’t do that, then they cannot inherit from that child and the child cannot inherit from them because there would’ve been no legal barrier to it after the child turned 18