Don't have a will? Guess again! We all have a will, whether we had one drafted or not. After an extensive search by several people, we discovered, much to our dismay, my renter had not made out a will. He had been urged by friends to do so but he never got around to it. He did have a huge amount of assets. In fact, I walked into the condo after not having been there in 20 years and thought wow! I wondered if this was like Storage Wars - do I get to keep all this stuff? No. The way it works is an exhaustive search is done to find anyone in the world who might be in anyway related to the deceased person. In this case, a couple elderly aunts who live out of the country. Had no one been found, the assets would have gone to the State of Texas. Each State has their own rules. In Maryland and Texas, if there are no relatives, the State gets the assets.
Lesson learned - get an attorney and make out a will! Unless you wish to support your State or some long lost relative. Also your will should be updated periodically. It is not a once and done situation. Make certain to revisit the document every few years.