Adult Adoption

You want to adopt an adult.

Adult adoptions are common in Tennessee.  While the birth parent should receive notice of the action, an adoption of a person 18 years old or older is provided for under Tennessee law. There is no need to obtain the birth parents’ consent or to have grounds to terminate their parental rights. The adoptee and prospective adoptive parents are co-petitioners. There is no requirement of an order of reference, home study, or court report, and there is no waiting period. Otherwise, the process is the same as those in other adoptions and the legal fees for adult adoptions are usually pretty affordable.

Most adult adoptions are also stepparent or relative adoptions, but adoptions of former foster children are also fairly common. Some families will wait until a child is 18 to adopt because the child is securely with them and they don’t want to pay the legal fees for a hotly contested termination of the birth parent’s rights. It works.

While an adult adoption is in every way a real adoption, the primary reason to adopt an adult is to recognize an existing parent child relationship. The adopted person can change all or part of their name and their birth certificate is revised.

Because the person to be adopted and the adoptive parents are both deliberately making a lifelong commitment to one another in a way that children just don’t appreciate, these hearings are often even more emotional than adoption of children. Don’t be caught off guard. Bring Kleenex.

Call the office for more information or to begin.