Q. President Kim's mother died when he was young and he was raised by his stepmother from the age of 4. His stepmother, who had no children of her own, raised him like a parent, and he treated her like his own mother, living with her for 50 years. Until one day, when she name and apartment, with all the money coming from Kim himself, and his stepmother was not involved at all. Later, her stepmother died and the apartment was inherit the apartment, he was told that he could not inherit it because he was not listed as his stepmother's biological son, and that his stepmother's younger brother would inherit it. What should he do at this point. 

A. The Civil Code, the kinship between the ex-wife's birth mother and the stepmother is extinguished, negating any previous blood ties. However, it only recognizes in-laws as spouses of direct survivors. Therefore, in the case of stepmother and stepson, inheritance rights could not occur.

Kim lost her mother at a young age, and her stepmother lived with her for decades, raising paternity, so she would have had no problem recognizing her stepmother as her mother and would have thought she was the heir. However, because his stepmother died after 1991, when the Revised Civil Code was enacted, the kinship between Kim and his stepmother has already been extinguished, and Kim cannot be her heir. 

If the stepmother had no spouse or children, and the stepmother's parents were also deceased, the stepmother's legal heirs would be her biological siblings. In the above example, the order of inheritance, your stepmother's biological younger brother is the legal heir. If your stepmother has only one sibling, her biological brother is the sole legal heir and will inherit all inherited property. 

Kim's apartment was bought in his stepmother's name in trust. There are still a number of situations where trusts are put in place, but it's important to note that 'law, real estate trusts are prohibited by law, with a few exceptions. Kim's apartment was also subject to the same prohibition, as was the purchase and sale of his payments, it's not easy to get access to the apartment under the trust. Rather, Kim had his stepmother gift to her stepmother. In the above case, mediation by court-appointed mediators resulted in a settlement in which Kim paid 20% of the value of the apartment to his stepmother's younger brother and got the apartment back.

This is a good outcome, given the difficulty of proving a trust in name in a real-life case. In this case, the stepmother's relationship with her stepchildren was not recognized and no inheritance rights arose. withjsp@naver.com