Adopting an Adult in Florida

“Can you adopt an adult in Florida?” Absolutely! Not all adoptions involve young children. If you’ve ever had a parent-child relationship with an adult who’s not legally recognized as your child, adult adoption is a meaningful way to formally recognize this important member of your family.

Bryan McLachlan is proud to be able to help loved ones solidify their parent-child relationships through adult adoptions. Contact Bryan at (727) 398-0086 to learn how to adopt an adult that you love today.

Why Pursue an Adult Adoption?

The adoption of an adult can occur for both practical and emotional reasons. Some common reasons for adopting an adult in Florida include:

  • The desire to legally recognize a person as your child for the purpose of inheritance, medical decision-making and more
  • Former foster children who are now legally adults, but whose foster parent wishes to formally recognize them as their child
  • Stepparents who raised their spouse’s child and wish for their stepchild to become their legally-recognized child

While adult adoption in Florida has obvious practical benefits, there is also great importance in formalizing the emotional bond between an adoptive parent and their adult child.

What Are the Biggest Benefits of Adopting an Adult?

In Bryan’s extensive experience, the desire for a loved one to be able to reap the benefits of a legal parent-child relationship is what most often prompts the question, “Can I adopt an adult?”

The benefits of adult adoption can include:

  • The adoptee’s ability to inherit from the adoptive parent
  • Access to some social security and pension benefits
  • The freedom to make emergency medical decisions and visit each other in the hospital as legal family
  • The ability to release important information to the other party as a family member
  • The easier ability to legally take the adoptive parents’ name, if desired
  • The formal and legal confirmation of your emotional bond
  • The ability to drop the identifying terms (“step-,” “foster,” “his,” “hers,” “theirs,” “mine”) and simply refer to one another as a child or parent

Many benefits of adopting an adult in Florida are practical ones. But the law finally reflecting your relationship as a parent and child is by far the greatest benefit of being able to adopt an adult.

Who Can Adopt or Be Adopted through Adult Adoptions in Florida?

“Can you adopt someone over 18?” Yes — in the state of Florida, any adult over the age of 18 is eligible to be adopted as long as the adoptee formally consents to the adoption.

So who is eligible to adopt an adult in the state of Florida?

In Florida, any single adult can petition to adopt an adult, or a married couple must petition jointly. LGBT couples and stepparents can adopt their spouse’s child through a stepparent adoption if they’re under 18, or an adult adoption if they’re 18 or older, to establish the same legal parental rights as their spouse.

Unlike many other states, there’s no specified age requirement to be able to adopt someone over 18 in Florida.

How to Adopt an Adult in Florida

The adoption process is greatly simplified for adult adoptions in Florida. This is primarily because the adoptee is able to consent to the adoption and there’s no need to complete a home study or terminate parental rights.

The only person you’ll need to complete an adult adoption in FL is Bryan.

He’ll be able to walk you through the four major steps of how to adopt an adult in Florida, including:

  1. Filing your adoption petition with the court
  2. Signing the adoption consent forms
  3. Finalizing the adoption in court
  4. Obtaining an amended birth certificate for the adoptee, changing the adoptee’s surname and updating your will, if desired

With Bryan’s help, you can officially acknowledge the parent-child relationship that you have with your loved one by adopting an adult.

Contact Bryan now to learn more about adult adoption, and how you and your loved one could benefit from legally solidifying your parent-child relationship.