{"data":{"id":"us/20-cfr-222.34","jurisdiction":"us","citation":"20 CFR 222.34","heading":"Relationship resulting from equitable adoption.","body":"In many States, where a legal adoption proceeding was defective under State law or where a contemplated legal adoption was not completed, a claimant may be considered to be an equitably adopted child. A claimant will have the relationship of an equitably adopted child for annuity and lump-sum payment purposes if, in addition to meeting the other requirements of this part—\n(a) The employee had agreed to adopt the claimant; and\n(b) The natural parents or the person legally responsible for the care of the claimant agreed to the adoption; and\n(c) The employee and the claimant lived together as parent and child; and\n(d) The agreement to adopt is recognized under applicable State law such that, if the employee were to die without leaving a will, the claimant could inherit a share of the employee's personal estate as the child of the employee.","path":["Title 20—Employees' Benefits","CHAPTER II—RAILROAD RETIREMENT BOARD","SUBCHAPTER B—REGULATIONS UNDER THE RAILROAD RETIREMENT ACT","PART 222—FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS","Subpart D—Relationship as Child"],"source_url":"https://www.ecfr.gov/api/versioner/v1/full/2026-08-25/title-20.xml","current_through":"2026-08-25","vintage":"","retrieved_at":"2026-08-27T02:24:45Z","sha256":"0f42788449cd4523c4bfd23d7e1e452032cff282ccc703277504882024415227","source_id":"us-cfr","stale":true,"prev":"us/20-cfr-222.33","next":"us/20-cfr-222.35"},"notice":"GroundRules: Original legal text. Not legal advice."}