Stepchild
A partner's child you did not adopt. Generally not a descendant for inheritance, however they were raised.
What it means
Intestacy statutes distribute to descendants, and a stepchild who was never adopted is generally not one. Length of the relationship and the reality of the upbringing do not change that.
Adoption does change it: an adopted child is generally treated as a child for these purposes.
Other systems answer the question separately and can answer it differently. Social Security's survivors rules reach a stepchild in defined circumstances, and at least one state's anti-lapse statute names a stepchild among the relatives it protects.
Why it matters
It is one of the most common gaps between what a household believes about itself and what the default rules do, and it surfaces only after a death, when it cannot be fixed.
It is also entirely fixable in advance and mostly for free, because naming a stepchild on the beneficiary forms that allow it moves more of an ordinary estate than a will does.
When you are likely to meet it
- When making a will or reviewing beneficiary designations in a blended family.
- When an estate is distributed under intestacy and a stepchild is left out.
- When a form asks who the children or descendants are.
For example
A man raises his wife's son from the age of four and never adopts him. He dies without a will, and the statutory order distributes to his own children and to nobody else.
How this varies by state
Whether any provision of a state's law reaches a stepchild, and in what circumstance, is set by that state. New Jersey's anti-lapse statute names a stepchild where others do not.