25/08/2025
Parenthood consists of a set of responsibilities that parents must exercise through behaviors and actions during the child’s physical and mental development, which, by involving deeper dimensions that cannot be imposed but rather built and felt over time, extend beyond biological bonds.
Currently, in Brazil, the existence of socio-affective bonds is sufficient for the recognition of filiation, if it is based on the development of an affective relationship with the individual exercising parental functions, regardless of biological or blood ties.
Recognition through judicial means can be sought either during the lifetime of the parties involved or post-mortem. Although similar, these actions are distinct, as the defendant in a post-mortem case is the deceased’s estate, represented by the estate administrator.
Recognition may also be obtained extrajudicially, which must be pursued by an adult before the Office of Civil Registry of Natural Persons, for individuals over 12 years of age, upon presentation of evidence attesting to the affective relationship between the parties, as well as a consent term from the biological parents of the minor. After analyzing the request and the given documents, the Civil Registry Officer must draft a petition, submitting it for review by the competent court, which will issue a ruling only after the Public Prosecutor’s legal opinion.
Upon approval of the requests, whether judicial or extrajudicial, the recognized offspring’s civil registry record will be amended to include, alongside the biological parents’ names, the names of their socio-affective parent(s) and grandparents, with the option for the child to adopt a new surname. The effects of such recognition are retroactive (“ex tunc”) and directly affect succession rights.
On one hand, the socio-affective child will acquire the same rights as if a biological offspring, being considered a legitimate and forced heir of the ascendant. It is important to note that if the socio-affective ascendant has made life donations to biological or adopted descendants – even prior to the recognition of the socio-affective bond – the existence of an additional forced heir shall have to be considered, which may trigger future collation of assets (“colação de bens”), a measure aimed at preventing unequal inheritance distributions among forced heirs.
Furthermore, it is not only the socio-affective child who is entitled to inheritance; the parent who recognizes the child also acquires succession rights if the child predeceases him/her, in the same proportion as the other biological ascendants.
It can be concluded that formalizing emotional bonds through the recognition of socio-affective paternity impacts significantly not only on the family structure but also on the moment of succession, which may trigger conflicts. Therefore, it is of the utmost importance that, prior to recognizing a new child, the family seeks proper succession planning.
Authored by Carlo Fantoni Neto
