Can I designate my adopted child as the successor to my lease? What about other adopted relatives?

By Henderson Huihui, NHLC Staff Attorney, ʻOhana Services

There is a legal distinction between legal adoption and the traditional practice of hānai. The Hawaiian Homes Commission Act (HHCA) provides a specific list of relatives who may succeed to a homestead lease. This list includes spouse, children, grandchildren, siblings, as long as they have at least 25% biological Native Hawaiian blood quantum. The list also includes parents, nieces, and nephews, as long as they have at least 50% Native Hawaiian blood quantum, referred to in HHCA as “native Hawaiians.”

The Department of Hawaiian Home Lands (DHHL) requires one of these listed legal relationships for a successor. DHHL will not approve successors without one of the listed legal relationships and the required blood quantum.

Adoption establishes a legal familial relationship. The adopting parents will be listed on the adopted child’s birth certificate, and the adopted person qualifies as a child to the adopting parents within DHHL guidelines. Without legal adoption, hānai children are not treated as children by DHHL for successor purposes. Legal adoption is required.

Like any other child, for successorship an adopted child must be able to document at least 25% Native Hawaiian blood quantum based on their biological ancestry – not the ancestry of their adoptive parents. So, adopted children seeking to succeed in a lease held by their adoptive parents will need to document their adoption by the adoptive parents and their blood quantum based on the ancestry of their biological parents.

This can be a difficult challenge. Adoption records, such as original birth certificates, are usually sealed by court order. To gain access to these records, a court must order them unsealed. Even with unsealed records, depending on the circumstances of the adoption, the names or ancestral backgrounds of the biological parents may not be found.

Adopted children can also be treated as legal children to their biological parents for homestead successorship, thanks to a legal rule change passed in 2023. It’s important to note that for trust and estate matters, this new 2023 rule is unusual.

Normally, the law does not treat an adopted child like a continuing child to the biological parents, so families should seek legal advice for questions about the legal rules that apply to adopted and biological children in other matters beyond homesteads. This article is focused only on the rules regarding adoption and hānai relatives for Hawaiian homestead successorship.

In brief, since 2023, adopted children can be successors to their adoptive parents’ homestead and their biological parents’ homestead if they can document at least 25% Native Hawaiian biological blood quantum. For adopted people, evidencing biological blood quantum can be hard and requires a legal process to unseal court records. Without legal adoption, hānai children can only succeed as children to a biological parents’ homestead, not their hānai parents’ homestead, and the 25% blood quantum rule also applies.

Similar requirements and considerations apply to other relatives who have been adopted or hānai, including grandchildren, nieces, and nephews.

This article was originally published in the August 1, 2025, edition of Ka Wai Ola. NHLC partners with the Office of Hawaiian Affairs to publish an article in Ka Wai Ola each month that responds to community questions. You can access this article on the Ka Wai Ola website here.

Ask NHLC provides general information about the law. Ask NHLC is not legal advice. You can contact NHLC about your legal needs by calling NHLC’s offices at 808-521-2302.

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