VAIDIK, J.
Bonnie E. (Taggart) Paloutzian and Linda M. Taggart, natural children of Henry G. Taggart, appeal the trial court‘s order that Gregory A. Taggart and Belle Delint-Eaglesfield, adopted children of Henry G. Taggart, are beneficiaries under their grandfather Alex L. Taggart Jr.‘s 1953 trust. Alex Taggart executed his trust when the stranger to the adoption rule was in effect. The stranger to the adoption rule provides that when one makes provision in his will for a child or children of some person other than himself, he will be presumed not to have included an adopted child or children of such other person, unless there is something in the will or extraneous circumstances to rebut that presumption. In this issue of first impression, we hold that a 2003 amendment to the Trust Code, Indiana Code section 30-4-2.1-2, which abrogated the stranger to the adoption rule and placed adopted children on equal footing with natural children, applies retroactively to the trust in this case pursuant to Indiana Code section 30-4-1-4. This is because to retroactively apply the amendment neither adversely affects a right given to any beneficiary nor gives a right to any beneficiary which he or she was not intended to have when the trust was created. We therefore affirm the trial court.
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[Because] we have already determined that the 2003 amendment reversed the presumption established by the stranger to the adoption rule to a presumption favoring the inclusion of adopted children[, . . .] the natural children have the burden of going forward with evidence showing that at the time of the execution of the Trust, Taggart intended to exclude adopted children. This they have not done.
Because the natural children have failed to prove that either of the two exceptions apply, we conclude that the 2003 amendment applies retroactively to the Trust. Thus, we affirm the trial court‘s ruling that the adopted children are beneficiaries under the terms of the Trust.
Affirmed.
RILEY, J., concurs.
CRONE, J., dissents with separate opinion.
CRONE, J., dissenting.
“The polestar for construing trust provisions is the intent of the settlor.” Matter of Walz, 423 N.E.2d at 733. The relevant intent “is that held by the settlor at the time the trust was executed. This is the basis of the following well established rule of trust construction: the settlor‘s intent must be determined from the facts and circumstances surrounding the settlor at the time of the execution of the trust.” Id. at 734. When Taggart executed his irrevocable inter vivos Trust in November 1953, the stranger to the adoption rule was in effect, and we must presume that he was familiar with that rule. . . .
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