The collateral line of descent involves persons who are descended from a common ancestor, such as brothers who share the same father or cousins who have the same grandfather. Whether an adopted child can be regarded as in the direct line of descent depends upon the law in the particular jurisdiction. The direct line of descent involves persons who are directly descended from the same ancestor, such as father and son, or grandfather and grandson. Line of descent is the order or series of persons who have descended one from the other or all from a common ancestor, placed in a line in the order of their birth showing the connection of all blood relatives. Statutes generally confer rights of inheritance only on blood relatives, adopted children, adoptive parents, and the surviving spouse. The terms heirs, next of kin, and distributees usually refer to the persons who by operation of law-the application of the established rules of law-inherit or succeed to the property of a person intestate on his or her death.
If there are no relatives who can inherit the property, the estate escheats, or reverts, to the state. An order of preference among certain relatives of the deceased is established by the statute. They seek to implement the distribution that most intestates would have provided had they made wills, on the theory that most persons prefer that their property pass to their nearest relatives rather than to more remote ones. These statutes provide for an orderly administration by identifying successors to a decedent's, also called an intestate's, estate. Statutes in every state prescribe the order in which persons succeed to a decedent's property if he or she dies intestate, which means without a lawfully executed will. In the United States, such law is derived from the Civil Law and English statutes of distributions, rather than from the Common Law, which preferred the eldest male, under the doctrine of primogeniture, and males over females. As a general rule, the law, and not the deceased person, confers the right of succession-the passing of title to a decedent's property-and determines who shall take intestate property. The passage of property from ancestors to children has been recognized and enforced since biblical times. The area of law that pertains to the transfer of real property or Personal Property of a decedent who failed to leave a will or make a valid will and the rights and liabilities of heirs, next of kin, and distributees who are entitled to a share of the property.
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