DNA test reunions now sparking inheritance battles as surprise heirs step forward

DNA discoveries ignite unexpected inheritance disputes (Representative image)

A recent article from the Wall Street Journal shows how at-home DNA kits opened the door to inheritance conflicts that no one saw coming. Take Carmen Thomas of Boston, for example. Thomas was raised believing her dad was a man named Joe Brown. When she matched with members of the Brown family on 23andMe, she was excited to learn she had two likely half-sisters. The women met, bonded over boba tea and family albums, and Thomas was welcomed into their grandmother's home.

But just a year later, the reunion became a legal battle. Thomas sued the Brown sisters and their mother for a share of a multimillion-dollar medical-malpractice settlement awarded after Joe Brown’s death from an undiagnosed aortic aneurysm.

She argued that she was entitled to share the compensation as his biological daughter. The family’s lawyer said they were stunned by the claim that arrived long after Brown’s passing.

According to the Wall Street Journal report, such cases are rising sharply as DNA tests uncover previously unknown children. In most states, biological connection can be enough to stake a claim when there is no will or trust. Other states take into consideration the nature of the relationship with the deceased or the timing of the claim. Even with a will, general terms like “to my children” or “to my descendants” may unintentionally include biological children that the family never knew about.

Estate-planning experts say DNA revelations are complicating long-settled expectations. Affairs have always existed, Washington-based lawyer Sarah Moore Johnson told the Journal, but only now are they being conclusively uncovered by genetic testing. In Utah, the state's Supreme Court ruled in 2021 that a man whose DNA matched the late John Heater was entitled to one-third of Heater's estate, citing years of birthday cards and money as evidence of acknowledgment.

Lawyers recommend that estate plans be updated and explicitly spell out whether unknown biological children should or should not be included. Such specificity might override state inheritance laws and spare families future shocks.

Another case, reported in the Wall Street Journal, is that of the estate of Buffalo businessman Frank McGuire, who died in 2020. A woman, Jordan Tripi, who matched with the family through a DNA kit, claimed a share of the multimillion-dollar estate and requested formal testing. Mr. McGuire's seven children opposed her claim, but a New York appellate court ordered DNA testing, and the parties were nearing a settlement before Thanksgiving.

As the Journal’s report shows, DNA kits can bring families together but they can also open the door to painful and unexpected battles over money, identity and legacy.