If you are considering marrying a parent, or are already a stepparent, you may wonder what the benefits of a stepparent adoption are. Knowing how Michigan law treats stepchildren and adopted children can help make decisions for your blended family that puts your children and stepchildren first and makes sure they are provided for if something happens to you or your spouse.
1. Children in Blended Families Need Stability
More and more families are “blended”, including children who don't all share the same parents. This may be due to single-parent births, parents who never married, or the result of an earlier divorce. No matter what your children's family history, every time a parent's romantic relationship changes it causes children stress and anxiety due to instability in their home and family.
Completing a stepparent adoption – where the Michigan Family Court declares the spouse of a child's parent will be the child's legal parent – tells your stepchildren that you will be there for them, no matter how your relationship with their birth parent changes. In Michigan courts, most teenagers are asked to consent to their own stepparent adoption. This can create a meaningful moment between you and your stepchildren, giving you a connection that goes beyond marital status.
2. Adoptive Parental Rights Make Things Easier for Stepparents
On a practical level, stepparents often take on many parental responsibilities for the children in their household including communicating with schools, attending doctors' appointments, and enrolling children in religious and extracurricular activities. However, by law, decisions about a child's care or wellbeing should only be made by a legal parent. Medical and educational privacy laws can create problems if professionals will not talk to stepparents. One of the benefits of stepparent adoption is cutting through this red tape by giving stepparents legal authority to make decisions for their children.
3. Stepparent Adoption Strengthens Family Bonds
The internet is full of stepparents trying to find ways to connect with their stepchildren or break down resistance to their emotional offerings. Often, children can try to protect themselves and their siblings from future emotional harm by keeping their distance from stepparents and other caregivers after a high-conflict divorce or parental breakup. A stepparent adoption strengthens these family bonds, reestablishing children's trust by showing them you care enough to go to court for them. Stepparent adoption proceedings can also include name changes, bringing everyone in your family closer together.
4. Protecting Your Parent-Child Relationship Against a Second Divorce
No one wants to think that their marriage will end in divorce, but the truth is that, statistically, second and subsequent marriages are far less likely to last “until death do you part.” Without adoption, a second divorce can sever your connection to your stepchildren. Under Michigan law, no matter how long you have acted as your stepchildren's caregiver, stepparents are legal strangers to their stepchildren and have no right to request custody or parenting time in a divorce. A benefit of stepparent adoption is it gives you the same parental rights (and responsibilities) as the natural parent of a child, and that includes the ability to go to court and fight for custody.
5. Dependents' Benefits After a Stepparent Adoption
One benefit of stepparent adoption that often goes overlooked is that an adoptive child is entitled to benefits as a dependent of his or her adoptive parent. As a stepparent, you have no legal obligation to financially provide for your stepchildren, and that means third parties such as your employer, insurance providers, and even the government may refuse to pay for their care and support. A stepparent adoption can make your adopted child eligible for:
- Employer-provided health, dental, and optical insurance
- Pension benefits and retirement account payments as designated beneficiaries
- Social Security (SSI) benefits
- Military dependency benefits
- Veterans' retirement and disability benefits
- Life insurance payments as designated beneficiaries
- Social security disability insurance (SSDI) benefits as dependents of a disabled adult
- Welfare such as Medicaid and SNAP benefits for low-income or unemployed parents
6. Shielding Stepchildren from Harmful Non-Custodial Parents
Sometimes, children's non-custodial parent doesn't have custody for a reason. Maybe he or she abandoned the children or engaged in serious misconduct such as domestic violence or even child abuse. In those cases, stepparent adoption can be very important to protect your spouse's children against eventually going to live with their non-custodial parent. The first (and sometimes most difficult step) in any stepparent adoption is the termination of the non-custodial parent's rights. This can be done by consent or through trial. Once the adoption is final, you, the stepparent, replace the non-custodial parent. That means your stepchildren will never have to worry about getting placed back with their harmful parent, even if your spouse dies or becomes unable to care for them in the future.
7. Providing for Stepchildren in Your Estate
One of the biggest benefits of stepparent adoption is that it gives your stepchildren inheritance rights to your estate under Michigan probate law. That means if you die without a will, your assets will pass to your adopted and natural children alike (unless you exclude them in a will or prenuptial agreement). Blended families gain some of the biggest benefits from comprehensive estate planning that accounts for each person in the family unit. A stepparent adoption can provide another level of protection in case someone files a will challenge or disputes your wishes after your death.
Get Help with Stepparent Adoption from a Michigan Family Lawyer
At Bebout, Potere, Cox & Bennion, P.C., we care about you and your family. We help individuals and families in Rochester Hills, Rochester, Troy, Lake Orion, Oxford, Oakland County, Macomb County and throughout Southeast Michigan. We can help you complete a stepparent adoption and estate planning documents to protect all your children now, and in the future. Call us at 248-651-4114 or contact us here to speak to an attorney.
