Estate planning has not kept up with children joining families through technological means.
While estate planning has generally kept pace with Americans living in blended families, it has not kept up with the developments in medical science for people to have children through such things as surrogacies and frozen embryos, according to Private Wealth in “Yours, Mine, Ours And ‘ART’.”
When children become part of a family through technological means, it is not always clear what their legal inheritance rights are. Different states have different rules.
For example, if a child is born after someone passes away through implantation of a frozen embryo, should that child have a right to a portion of the estate of the deceased? The default answer is different in different states.
People who have or who might have children with technological assistance need to work with an estate planning attorney to be sure their estate plans take the laws of their state into account.
Reference: Private Wealth (Sep. 13, 2017) “Yours, Mine, Ours And ‘ART’.”
