In many families’ understanding, inheritance flows only one way, from parents down to children, so when an adult child dies before their parents, many grandparents are pushed away from the division table on the reasoning that everything must go to the deceased’s spouse and children. Vietnamese law does not divide that way: parents stand in the same first line of heirs as the deceased’s spouse and children, and this article explains the parents’ part in each concrete family configuration.
Legal basis for parents inheriting from a deceased child
The position of parents in a child’s inheritance is established directly by Article 651 of the 2015 Civil Code (91/2015/QH13): the first line of heirs includes the deceased’s biological father and mother and adoptive father and mother, standing on the same level as that person’s spouse and children. This rule makes inheritance two-directional — children inherit from parents and parents also inherit from children — provided the parent-child relation is lawfully established at the opening of the inheritance.
Between biological parents and adoptive parents there is no distinction in shares: Article 653 of the 2015 Civil Code establishes the inheritance relation between an adopted child and adoptive parents in the same way as between a biological child and biological parents, where the adoption was lawfully registered under the 2010 Law on Adoption (52/2010/QH12). This lawful-registration condition is the decisive point, because a de facto upbringing relation lasting many years without registration does not automatically create inheritance rights for adoptive parents.
The parents’ part in a child’s estate is also shielded against an unfavourable will by Article 644 of the 2015 Civil Code: the father and mother belong to the group of heirs independent of the will’s content, so even if the child left a will giving everything to others, the parents still receive two-thirds of one intestate share. This shield only loses effect where the parents themselves fall within the cases barred from inheriting under Article 621, for example having been convicted of intentionally infringing the life of the person leaving the estate.
Applying the rules to each question about parents inheriting from a deceased child
A child dies; do the parents receive a share of the estate? When a child dies, the parents receive a full share in the first line of heirs, equal to the share of the deceased’s spouse and of each grandchild, not a symbolic allowance decided by daughters-in-law, sons-in-law or grandchildren. For example, with an estate of 3 billion dong and heirs comprising the father, mother, wife and one child of the deceased, the four divide equally at 750 million dong each, with the parents together holding half of the total estate.
If there is a spouse and children, do the parents still get a share? Where the deceased has a spouse and children, the parents still receive a share, because the first line of heirs does not exclude its own members: the more persons in the line, the smaller each portion, but no group within the line is pushed to a later line. A common mistake is importing substitution rules or heir-line rules from foreign law, while the 2015 Civil Code places the parents and the deceased’s small family on the same division plane.
What about adoptive parents? Adoptive parents inherit from an adopted child like biological parents where the adoption was lawfully registered, and conversely the adopted child also inherits from the adoptive parents under the same Article 653. If the family only raised the child in fact without ever registering, the adoptive parents should expect their inheritance right to require proof through another route, and in many cases only a will made by the child while alive can secure a share for the adoptive parents.
Safe steps for parents inheriting from a deceased child
- Identify the full first line of heirs of the deceased child, including biological parents, adoptive parents, the spouse and that person’s children.
- Gather documents proving the parent-child relation: the deceased’s birth certificate, or the adoption certificate for adoptive parents.
- Calculate the deceased child’s net estate after deducting obligations payable from the estate in the statutory order.
- Divide the estate equally among those in the first line and record the parents’ part in the notarised estate-division document.
Common risks in parents inheriting from a deceased child
The biggest risk for parents when a child dies is being persuaded to sign a disclaimer or a yielding of their entire inheritance share amid funeral confusion without understanding the legal weight of that signature, because a notarised document can hardly be withdrawn. Families should let any decision by grandparents to yield their share happen only after the estate is inventoried and valued, in a separate document stating clearly to whom and how much is yielded.
Parents inheriting when their child dies hold a full share in the first line of heirs, on equal footing with the deceased’s small family, and shielded by Article 644 even against an unfavourable will. Understanding this position lets grandparents enter the estate division as true right-holders, rather than recipients of their descendants’ goodwill.
Frequently asked questions about parents inheriting from a deceased child
A child dies; do the parents receive a share of the estate?
Parents should appear in the child’s declaration of inheritance from the very first version, even if the family plans for the grandparents to yield their share to the grandchildren by a separate document, because omitting the grandparents from the file and adding them later is a far more complicated procedure. When a child dies, the parents receive a full share in the first line of heirs, equal to the share of the deceased’s spouse and of each grandchild, not a symbolic allowance decided by daughters-in-law, sons-in-law or grandchildren. For example, with an estate of 3 billion dong and heirs comprising the father, mother, wife and one child of the deceased, the four divide equally at 750 million dong each, with the parents together holding half of the total estate.
If there is a spouse and children, do the parents still get a share?
If the child died with loans or unpaid obligations, the parents’ part in inheriting from the deceased child is calculated on the net estate after the deceased’s obligations are settled within the estate under Article 615, not on the nominal total assets. Where the deceased has a spouse and children, the parents still receive a share, because the first line of heirs does not exclude its own members: the more persons in the line, the smaller each portion, but no group within the line is pushed to a later line. A common mistake is importing substitution rules or heir-line rules from foreign law, while the 2015 Civil Code places the parents and the deceased’s small family on the same division plane.
What about adoptive parents?
Adoptive parents whose adoption was never registered should seek early advice on upbringing evidence and the possibility of an agreement with the other co-heirs, instead of waiting until the child’s estate-division document has been notarised before speaking up. Adoptive parents inherit from an adopted child like biological parents where the adoption was lawfully registered, and conversely the adopted child also inherits from the adoptive parents under the same Article 653. If the family only raised the child in fact without ever registering, the adoptive parents should expect their inheritance right to require proof through another route, and in many cases only a will made by the child while alive can secure a share for the adoptive parents.
