New Jersey Statutes

N.J. Stat. § 2A:22-3 (2026)

Effect of adoption; inheritance

✓ current as of May 2026

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2A:22-3. The adoption, when granted by the court, shall have the following effect:

a. The right of the person adopted, and of such persons as legally represent him on his death, to take and inherit intestate personal and real property from his natural parents and their kindred shall not be altered by the adoption.

b. In all other respects, all rights, privileges and obligations due from the natural parents to the person adopted and from the person adopted to them and all relations existing between such person and them shall be at an end, including the right of the natural parents and their kindred to take and inherit intestate personal and real property from and through the person adopted.

c. All rights, privileges and obligations due from the parents by adoption to the person adopted and from the person adopted to them and all relations between such person and them shall be the same as if the person adopted had been born to them in lawful wedlock, including the right to take and inherit intestate personal and real property from and through each other.

Except, however, that:

a. The person adopted shall not be capable of taking property expressly limited by a will or any other instrument to the heirs of the body of the adopting parent or parents, nor property coming on intestacy from the collateral kindred of the adopting parent or parents by right of representation; and

b. On the death of the parent or parents by adoption and the subsequent death of the person adopted, without issue or a spouse, the property of the deceased parent or parents by adoption shall descend to and be distributed among the heirs and next of kin of the parent or parents by adoption and not to the heirs and next of kin of the person adopted; and

c. If the parent or parents by adoption shall have another child or other children entitled to take and inherit from them on intestacy, such children and the person adopted shall, respectively, take and inherit intestate personal and real property from and through each other as if all had been children of the same parents born in lawful wedlock; and

d. Where a parent who has procured a divorce, or a surviving parent, having lawful custody of a child, lawfully marries again, or where an adult unmarried person who has become a resource family parent and has lawful custody of a child, marries, and such parent or resource family parent consents that the person who thus becomes the stepfather or the stepmother of the person so adopted may adopt the person so adopted, the rights, privileges and obligations due from the parent or resource family parent, so consenting, to the person adopted and from the person adopted to such parent and the relations existing between them shall not be altered by the adoption.

Notes of Decisions

Cited in 3 cases (2 in the last 5 years), 1976–2024 · leading case: In Re Est. of Griswold, 354 A.2d 717 (N.J. Super. Ct. App. Div. 1976).

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In Re Est. of Griswold, 354 A.2d 717 (N.J. Super. Ct. App. Div. 1976). “Our first adoption law was in reference to the adoption of minors and was enacted in 1877 ( L. 1877, c.”

Policemen's Benevolent Ass'n Local No. 258 v. Cnty. of Ocean (N.J. Super. Ct. App. Div. 2024). · cites it 2× “Cure found "there [wa]s a distinction in the law," adding that under N.J.S.A. 2A:22-3, "governing [an] inheritance following an adoption[,] there [wa]s no distinction between adoptive and biological parents," but the statute did "not include or mention stepparents.”

In the Matter of the 1979 Inter Vivos Trust of Alfred & Mary Sanzari (N.J. Super. Ct. App. Div. 2024). · cites it 2× “[N.J.S.A. 2A:22-3.] Although the latter provision provides that an adopted adult cannot take if the trust is limited to "heirs of the body," otherwise referred to as "[t]he 'stranger to the adoption' provision," Duke, 305 N.”

— N.J. Stat. § 2A:22-3(c)(a) — 1 case

In the Matter of the 1979 Inter Vivos Trust of Alfred & Mary Sanzari (N.J. Super. Ct. App. Div. 2024). “[N.J.S.A. 2A:22-3.] Although the latter provision provides that an adopted adult cannot take if the trust is limited to "heirs of the body," otherwise referred to as "[t]he 'stranger to the adoption' provision," Duke, 305 N.”

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