DNA tests, surprise siblings, and estate fights
DNA testing companies like 23andMe and AncestryDNA were all the rage years ago, as people wanted to learn of their lineage from generations past.
It didn’t take long for controversy to crop up with these testing companies. The huge amounts of sensitive data these companies hold are a target for hackers. Genetic data is uniquely identifiable and permanent; if it’s leaked, it can’t be reset like a password.
Another unforeseen consequence from DNA testing is discovering a parent had an affair that produced a child. Surprise, you have a half-sibling, and now they want a cut of your parents’ estate.
These situations are forcing states to rewrite estate laws, and attorneys are advising people to create a will and revocable trust to account for the possibility of a surprise heir. How’d you like to have that conversation with your spouse?
One would think that the discovery of a surprise heir would throw a family into chaos, but that doesn’t necessarily happen. Often, the family grows closer and puts up a united front against the heir’s claim for a portion of the estate.
In this article from MSN, you’ll learn more about this issue and how estate planning lawyers are handling it, and you’ll meet the surprise heirs who learned a parent’s identity and took their half-siblings to court.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/they-found-relatives-on-23andme-and...
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Slipstream
These are some interesting stories. There's a saying that when it comes to money, you find out just how many relatives you have.
In addition to the estate issues, companies like 23andMe that file for bankruptcy, all of the material they hold would be up for grabs. You gave your saliva to them, and now it goes to their buyer who will decide how they'll profit on it, yet again. Insurance companies would pay a handsome fee to find out donors genetic information. They could eliminate you from being insured if you have a genetic marker that could turn into a costly disease at some point.
We're on guard about revealing our social security number to strangers, so exercising the same caution with our DNA is just as important for a multitude of reasons.