If a person dies without a will (intestate)—and with no heirs (relatives or descendants)—ownership of the deceased person’s (decedent’s) property may be transferred to (or said to revert to) the state government (usually the state treasury) through the common law doctrine of escheat. In addition to enriching the state treasury (or the Lord in feudal England), escheat prevents property from remaining in limbo with no rightful owner.

A state’s common law is comprised of court opinions written by judges to resolve disputes and most states adopted the legal doctrine of escheat from the English common law (from England) soon after the founding of the United States and each state’s admission to the union. But in more recent years many state legislatures have defined the law of escheat in their state’s statutes—making it statutory law—which is also known as codifying the law, because it is then part of a code or statute.

The property subject to escheat laws is sometimes referred to or classified as unclaimed or abandoned property. Upon transfer to the government the unclaimed or abandoned property may be referred to as escheated property. And in some states there may be a period (a statute of limitations) in which heirs or rightful owners of the property may be able to reclaim escheated property.

Escheat laws vary from state to state and often depend on the nature of the asset involved (personal property, real property, bank account, brokerage account).

In California, if a person dies intestate (without a will) and has no identifiable heirs, the property of the deceased may escheat, or revert, to the state. This process is governed by California's unclaimed property laws, which are codified in the California Code of Civil Procedure. The state's Unclaimed Property Law requires that financial institutions, insurance companies, corporations, and business associations report and deliver property to the State Controller's Office after a period of time during which there has been no activity on an account or contact with the owner. The State Controller's Office is then responsible for safeguarding the assets and making efforts to locate the rightful owners or heirs. If no claim is made within a certain period, typically three years, the property becomes the state's. However, California does not have a statute of limitations for claiming escheated property, meaning that rightful owners or heirs can come forward to claim the property at any time.