Escheat
Updated June 7, 2026
When escheat happens
Escheat is relatively rare in estate matters — most people have at least some living relatives who qualify as heirs under intestacy law. It becomes a risk when family ties are distant or unknown, estranged relatives cannot be located, or when there simply is no one left. The state becomes the heir of last resort.
Unclaimed property and dormant accounts
Escheat also covers financial accounts that go dormant — no activity, no contact with the owner for a period of years. Banks, brokerages, and life insurers are required to report and remit these funds to the state's unclaimed property program. Heirs can later claim the money from the state, but the process takes time and is not always complete.
Related terms
- Intestate — Intestate means dying without a valid will. When that happens, state law — called intestate succession — decides who inherits, in a fixed order that usually favors a spouse and children, then other close relatives. The court appoints an administrator to settle the estate.
- Heir — An heir is a person who is legally entitled to inherit from an estate under state intestacy law — typically a spouse, child, parent, or other close relative. The term is often used more loosely to mean anyone who inherits, whether under a will or by law, but in its precise sense it refers only to those who would inherit if there were no will.
- Administrator — An administrator is a person appointed by a probate court to settle an estate when the deceased left no will, or when the will named no executor who can serve. The administrator has the same duties as an executor — gathering assets, paying debts, and distributing what remains — but receives their authority from the court rather than from a will.
- Residuary Estate — The residuary estate is everything that remains in a deceased person's estate after all specific bequests have been made, debts and taxes have been paid, and costs of administration have been settled. The will's residuary clause names who receives this remainder — often the bulk of the estate.
Legatus Vault keeps your wills, trusts, and estate documents in one secure place and releases them — only when the time comes, and only after careful verification — to the people you choose.