Are There Limitations on Estate "Re-Planning" Following Adult Adoptions, Especially for Same-Sex Couples?

In my course on Wills, Trusts and Estates, students always seem to be intrigued by "adult adoptions." There can be a variety of reasons for an adult adoption, often tied to estate planning goals, including attempts to create statutory heirs that can nullify challenges by other family members to bequests in traditional estate documents, such as wills or trusts on the grounds of "undue influence."  Sometimes the cases are connected to sad facts, such as the troubled life of tobacco heiress Doris Duke, who at age of 75 adopted a much younger woman, but came to regret that fact, leading to a mostly unsuccessful attempt at disinheritance. Robert Sitkoff's casebook on Wills Trusts & Estates has a fascinating profile of the Duke case, even though the original reasons for the adoption were not entirely clear. 

In the news this week is a less unhappy, but still complicated case -- and I imagine there could be similar cases around the country -- where in 2012,  after forty years as a same-sex couple, a retired teacher adopted his partner, a retired writer: 

Now, they're trying to undo the adoption to get married and a state trial court judge has rejected their request, saying his ability to annul adoptions is generally limited to instances of fraud.

 

"We never thought we'd see the day" that same-sex marriage would be legal in Pennsylvania, Esposito, 78, told CNN in a telephone interview. The adoption "gave us the most legitimate thing available to us" at the time, said Bosee, 68.

 For more on the facts, see "Couple Seeks Right to Marry.  The Hitch? They're Legally Father and Son," by CNN writers Evan Perez and Ariane de Vogue.  

 

And a hat tip to Dickinson Law student Kadeem Morris, who spotted this interesting piece.