Charities, distant relatives and even pets are benefiting from surprise inheritances. They can thank people without children. Not having children is becoming more common, both among millennials and older people, and many of these people don’t have wills.
“I thought it was a scam,” she said. “Nobody else in our family had heard that he had passed.”
https://www.wsj.com/personal-finance/childless-inheritance-wills-estate-79879ae3?mod=hp_featst_pos4