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I was adopted in 1967. In addition to the adoption papers, there was a declaration from a Judge that named me as the legal heir of my adoptive parents. They were divorced in 1978 and my father remarried in 1982. He died 10/2010. He left his very large multimillion dollar possessions to my stepmother. She got all the houses and cars and just everything my father had owned. He left me 1.8 million in a closed trust that will pay for any medical bills not covered by my insurance but only will give me personally only a total of $300,000. Do I have any rights having been declared in court to be my father's legal heir.
Optional Information: State/Country relating to question: Florida Already Tried: Nothing
Dear JACUSTOMER - There is a difference between being a legal heir and having a right to inherit. If your father had died with no will you would have been entitled to inherit as a legal heir under the laws of intestate succession and you would not need a judge to declare you a legal heir since you are automatically that through the adoption. If your father had a will and left everything to his wife then you would have no right to inherit since your father had no duty to leave anything to you. So whatever was left to you in his will is all that you will receive, even though you are still a legal heir. Unless you have some legal basis to challenge the will, such as your father not being mentally sound when he executed the will, you would have no way to change the outcome of the estate distribution.
Experience: 25 years practicing attorney