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Project Approved in the Senate Seeks to Allocate Ownerless Inheritances to Health, Education, and Social Assistance. The Proposal Now Goes to Analysis in the Chamber of Deputies.
In Brazil, thousands of assets — houses, land, bank accounts, and investments — end up without a defined owner after their owners die. These are called vacant inheritances, which occur when there are no identified heirs or when all heirs renounce the inheritance. Today, these amounts are generically incorporated into the State’s assets, with no specific destination.
But this may change. The Federal Senate approved, in November 2024, a bill that determines that unclaimed inheritances must be necessarily allocated to health, education, and social assistance. According to the authors, the aim is to give a social function to abandoned assets and ensure that these resources go directly to priority areas for the population.
The text, which will still be analyzed by the Chamber of Deputies, is already considered one of the most symbolic proposals for modernizing the Civil Code and could represent a turning point in the management of public assets and the concept of inheritance in the country.
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How the New Proposal Works
The Bill 1.504/2019, authored by Senator Weverton Rocha (PDT-MA), amends Article 1.822 of the Civil Code to redefine the destination of vacant assets. Currently, when a person dies without leaving heirs or when heirs renounce succession, the assets are transferred to the public authority, being incorporated into the assets of the federative entity where they were located.
In practice, these amounts enter the government’s coffers and can be used for any budgetary purpose.
The new project changes that: it determines that resources from vacant inheritances must be exclusively linked to investments in health, education, and social assistance, both at the federal and state and municipal levels.
According to the text approved in the Commission on Constitution and Justice (CCJ) of the Senate, this allocation will be mandatory and must be expressly included in public budgets.
“It is not fair that assets accumulated over a lifetime disappear in bureaucracy. The State must give these assets a destination that benefits the collective,” defended Weverton Rocha during the vote.
What Are Vacant Inheritances
The concept of vacant inheritance is provided for in Article 1.819 of the Civil Code. It occurs when, after someone’s death, there are no known legitimate or testamentary heirs. The judge responsible for the inventory declares the assets as vacant, after publishing notices and waiting the legal period for any heirs to come forward.
After five years with no claims, the property is definitively transferred to the public authority. This includes real estate, automobiles, bank balances, and even financial investments.
It is estimated that thousands of such cases occur annually in Brazil, especially among elderly, single individuals, without children, or from disorganized families. In many states, the amounts of vacant inheritances total millions of reais per year, but the destination of these resources is not very transparent.
The New Destination: Health, Education, and Social Assistance
With the new proposal, money from these inheritances will no longer be generically absorbed by the State but will have a social and solidarity character.
- In health, the resources can finance public hospitals, vaccination campaigns, and prevention programs.
- In education, they can be applied to schools, school meals, and basic infrastructure.
- In social assistance, they will support shelters, care homes, and poverty combat programs.
This linkage meets the constitutional principle of the social function of property and transforms an asset that was previously idle or dispersed into direct investment in collective well-being.
What Experts Say
Jurists and economists evaluate the proposal as positive and innovative. It maintains the State’s sovereignty over assets without heirs but imposes transparency and social purpose on the use of these resources.
However, there are those who see technical challenges. The mandatory budgetary linkage — that is, the requirement that these resources be allocated only to three sectors — could generate administrative hurdles and limit the financial autonomy of states and municipalities.
The rapporteur of the proposal in the CCJ, Senator Soraya Thronicke (Podemos-MS), acknowledged this concern but emphasized that the text is flexible enough to allow for supplemental regulation.
Debate in the Chamber and Next Steps
After approval in the CCJ of the Senate, the project went to the Chamber of Deputies, where it will still be analyzed by the thematic committees on Constitution and Justice, Finance, and Social Security.
If approved without modifications, the text will go to presidential sanction. If it receives amendments, it will return to the Senate for further deliberation.
The topic is expected to gain prominence in 2025, the year in which the Congress discusses the comprehensive reform of the Civil Code and new rules for inheritance, asset division, and digital succession.
Parliamentarians from both the governing and opposition parties have indicated support for the proposal, considering it of “low political cost and high social impact.”
A Step Toward the Social Function of Inheritance
The proposal brings to light an age-old discussion: the social role of inheritance. Instead of just transferring assets, inheritance now begins to produce a collective effect.
In recent years, there has been a growing global trend to direct ownerless assets to public policies. Countries such as France, Portugal, and Italy have similar rules, allocating resources for education and the preservation of historical heritage.
In Brazil, the project advances within this same spirit: transforming what was once forgotten into permanent public investment.
The PL 1.504/2019 is more than just a technical change to the Civil Code — it is an ethical redefinition of the destination of ownerless assets.
By allocating vacant inheritances to health, education, and social assistance, the State assumes an active stance of solidarity, transforming the silence of successions into tangible benefits for the population.
If approved by the Chamber and sanctioned, Brazil could inaugurate a new era for inheritance law: the era of social inheritance.
And you, reader: do you think it is fair for ownerless assets to be used for public benefit, or do you believe the State should keep them in a general fund, with no linkage?
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