A member of my family passed away. There was no will. Myself, and my brother and sister, were raised by this person, from when we were children; I was about 14 months when placed into custody with her. Because there is no direct bloodline to the deceased, we are being handed a portion of the estate that equals 1/3 of 1/3 of 50%. Is there some law that states after some period of time, we could be considered her children? There is one person, who has zero bloodline connection, and they are getting 300% more than us.
-- (Posted on the Forum by Rick)

(The following response was posted on the Forum Chat Room by Atty. Peter Bernardin) If there was no will, then the decedent died “intestate”, and the decedent's probate property must be distributed to the heirs-at-law (the decedent’s closest living relatives as determined by statute) in accordance with the Massachusetts laws of intestacy. The laws of intestacy are pretty rigid, so there is no ability to adjust the statutorily required distributions. In fact the Administrator of the estate could be sued by the “rightful” beneficiaries for doing so.

I'm assuming that you and your siblings are related to the decedent, but were never adopted by the decedent (the only way that you might be considered the children of the deceased). There may be some other arguments that could be made (such as promissory estoppel in some circumstances) but otherwise, I do not know of any avenue that you could pursue.

(Editor's Note: Unfortunately, figuring out who gets what under the law in Massachusetts often requires reference to more than one statute or section. For example, if the intestate decedent had a spouse and children, Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 190, Section 1, together with Chapter 190, Section 3, would require the court to distribute one half of the decedent's real and personal property to the spouse and the remainder to the decedent's children.)