I have three siblings, two brothers and one sister. My folks were from Europe and immigrated here after World War II.
Between me and the next kid there is a 15 year difference. I have not seen any of my siblings since 1980 almost 27 years now.
Someone asked me if I knew where my siblings were, I said “I don’t know, and realistically some of them could be dead by now.” I’m in my early 50s.
Then my friend asked, well if they’re dead, what if they left you something in the will. I told her, I guess I just would never know.
So that got me to wondering, what happens to someone named in a will if that person isn’t around. Do they try to find you? Or do they just say “Oh well we don’t know, I guess the Probate judge would decide it.”
Not that I expect anything, I was just using my case as an example.
I can’t answer this directly but all kinds of unclaimed property end up in custody of the state after a time where it just sits there. There are web sites to help people locate these things now and a suprising percentage of people have money turned over from some forgotten account and it can still be claimed many years later. I did a search for many of my relatives and about half of them had unclaimed money although most of it was small. I would assume that the procedure would be they same.
However, that only addresses money. I have no idea what happens if a family member leaves you their favorite pet goose of their manor and they can’t find the new owners.
The state holds the money in perpetuity. It never transfers back to the state. You can query most state’s websites for similar sites to look for unclaimed property. I believe I’ve even seen that they keep items that are or real value (gold, paintings, etc.) in starage waiting to be claimed. Very often papers will publish the names of the owners of unclaimed property so the state can try to get rid of it, because it obvioiusly takes tax resources to maintain.
I don’t have the book to hand, but the executors of a will have to try to track down the inheritors. When my aunt dies, I’m going to have to track down people whose last known address was the other side of the world 30 years ago. I don’t know what happens if I can’t find them.