Sec. 45a-257b. Failure of testator to provide for children born or adopted after execution of will. Determination of share of estate.
Sec. 45a-257b. Failure of testator to provide for children born or adopted after
execution of will. Determination of share of estate. (a) Except as provided in subsection (b) of this section, if a testator fails to provide in the testator's will for any of the
testator's children born or adopted after the execution of the will, including any child
who is born as a result of artificial insemination to which the testator has consented in
accordance with subsection (b) of section 45a-772, the omitted after-born or after-adopted child receives a share in the estate as follows:
(1) If the testator had no child living when the testator executed the will, an omitted
after-born or after-adopted child receives a share in the estate equal in value to that
which the child would have received had the testator died intestate, unless the will
devised or bequeathed all or substantially all of the estate to the other parent of the
omitted child and that other parent survives the testator and is entitled to take under
the will.
(2) If the testator had one or more children living when the testator executed the
will, and the will devised or bequeathed property or an interest in property to one or
more of the then-living children, an omitted after-born or after-adopted child is entitled
to share in the testator's estate as follows:
(A) Except as provided in subparagraph (E) of this subdivision, the portion of the
testator's estate in which the omitted after-born or after-adopted child is entitled to
share is limited to devises and legacies made to the testator's then-living children under
the will.
(B) The omitted after-born or after-adopted child is entitled to receive the share of
the testator's estate, as limited in subparagraph (A) of this subdivision, that the child
would have received had the testator included all omitted after-born and after-adopted
children with the children to whom devises and legacies were made under the will and
had given an equal share of the estate to each child.
(C) To the extent feasible, the interest granted an omitted after-born or after-adopted
child under this section must be of the same character, whether equitable or legal, present
or future, as that devised or bequeathed to the testator's then-living children under
the will.
(D) In satisfying a share provided by this subdivision, devises and legacies to the
testator's children who were living when the will was executed abate ratably. In the
abatement of the devises and legacies of the then-living children, to the maximum extent
possible the character of the testamentary plan adopted by the testator shall be preserved.
(E) If it appears from the will that the intention of the testator was to make a limited
provision which specifically applied only to the testator's living children at the time the
will was executed, the after-born or after-adopted child succeeds to the portion of such
testator's estate as would have passed to such child had the testator died intestate.
(b) The provisions of subsection (a) of this section shall not apply if:
(1) It appears from the will that the omission was intentional; or
(2) The testator provided for the omitted after-born or after-adopted child by transfer
outside the will and the intent that the transfer be in lieu of a testamentary provision is
shown by the testator's statements or is reasonably inferred from the amount of the
transfer or other evidence.
(c) If at the time of execution of the will the testator fails to provide in the will for
a living child solely because the testator believes the child to be dead, the child is entitled
to share in the estate as if the child were an omitted after-born or after-adopted child.
(d) In satisfying a share provided in subdivision (1) of subsection (b) of this section,
devises and legacies made by the will abate in accordance with section 45a-426.
(P.A. 96-95, S. 2; 96-202, S. 12.)
History: P.A. 96-202 changed effective date of P.A. 96-95 from October 1, 1996, to January 1, 1997.