Adult adoption

Unfortunately, many adults seeking to be adopted are really financial scammers. If they are legally adopted by someone, they will get financial and insurance benefits. For those honest adults who seek to be adopted, my guess would be that they see adoption as a more concrete bond to another family than just a close friendship.

It's an interesting question that you'll likely get a different answer for from every adult who wishes to be adopted. Some of those reasons are antiquated and come from a time before laws changed, for example: Adult partners use to utilize adoption as a means to legalize their relationship. Back before same-sex partners were afforded the ability to be legally married and have the same rights as heterosexual partners, these partners would seek an adoption to ensure inheritance rights, next-of-kin rights and other legal rights that many people never consider, outside of the GLBT community. Another instance I am familiar with is a child was raised by a step-parent, but because identification laws were so different in the 60's, 70's and 80's, he attended school using his step-parents last name. It's even printed on his transcripts and diplomas. When the time came for him to step out in to the adult world, he struggled with being called "Jones" when he'd been using "Smith" his entire life. Of course, he could have gone through the name change process, but he felt his dad (step-father) deserved to be legally recognized, so they went through the adult adoption process, which is MUCH easier and far less costly than infant/minor adoption.As the above person posted -- there are scammers out there. There are scammers in ALL walks of life, it's not something unique to adoption. I tend to focus on the legitimate reasons for adult adoption, because while we hear about the 'bad stories' in the media, there are countless wonderful stories that never make the news, because there isn't really anything to report on.