History

• Escheat evolved in early English law. When a tenant died without heirs, his property would revert to his lord. The lord then needed to produce a "writ of escheat" in order to take possession of the property. During much of the feudal era, property could only escheat to the King. Over time, the word "escheat" has come to refer not only to the process of escheat, but also to the actual property being escheated.
  
  

Modern Escheat

• Modern escheat describes the forfeiture of property to the state when the owner dies intestate (without a legal or valid will) and with no heirs or descendants who can legally take the property. Usually, escheat applies to real property (land), but personal property can escheat to the state as well. Each state has its own rules and steps in the escheat process, as well as its own definitions for legal heirs and descendants.
  
  

Special Situations

• In most states, escheat comes into play when a dead owner (the "decedent") has no legal will and no living kin to claim the property. However, many states also refuse to recognize a living kinsman as an heir and impose escheat in two special situations: 1) when there is no living heir but the decedent's killer, and 2) when both the decedent and his only heir died simultaneously. In many states, "simultaneous death" includes two deaths occurring within a very short time period of each other.
  
  

Escheators

• Historically, Crown officers called "escheators" had a duty to value escheated property belonging to the King. Many escheators were corrupt; this corruption provided the etymological basis for our modern word, "cheat." In the modern era, a country (and most of the individual U.S. states) will typically have its own appointed escheator to handle not only assessment of value on the property, but also all of the legal steps required of the state in order to escheat the property.
  
  

Prevention of Escheat

• In the modern era, large estates rarely escheat. The great deal of wealth at stake has encouraged the emergence of heir-hunters, investigators who are willing to find distant heirs to property in return for a percentage of the estate. Moreover, many states have enacted intestacy descent schemes designed to prevent escheat. California, for example, allows both stepchildren and parents-in-law of the decedent to inherit the property before escheat will come into play.