If a person dies without a will but leaves assets behind, those assets must be distributed according to Pennsylvania’s intestate succession rules. Under the intestate succession rules, a decedent’s assets pass to close surviving relatives, usually a spouse and children or other descendants. However, if a person does not have a surviving spouse or surviving descendants, his or her parents or siblings could inherit, with the rules search further and further out on the family tree to find the closest living relatives. If a person has no living relatives that can be identified, then the intestate succession rules state that his or her estate will “escheat” to the state treasury.