close, near
The succession passed to the nearest surviving relative.

distant
blood, family
If you die without a will, only a husband, wife, children and blood relatives are entitled to inherit your property.

immediate
The deceased's immediate relatives will inherit her estate.

living, surviving
deceased
elderly, old
young
female, male
long-lost
He greeted me like a long-lost relative.

poor (often figurative)
He believes that interior design is the poor relative of (= inferior to) architecture.

dependent (esp. BrE)
the increase in dependent elderly relatives

disabled, ill, sick
people who care for a sick or disabled relative

bereaved, grieving (both esp. BrE)

have
I have no parents or close relatives.

lose
an organization that helps people who have lost relatives (= whose relatives have died)

care for, give support to, help, look after (esp. BrE), support, take care of (esp. AmE)
She's caring for an elderly relative.

live with
stay with, visit
find, trace (esp. BrE)
The police are trying to find the relatives of the deceased.

contact, inform
The names of the victims are being withheld until the relatives have been informed.

friends and relatives, friends or relatives
an intimate reception for close friends and relatives

a relative by marriage

Relative is used with these nouns:
abundance, advantage, anonymity, autonomy, clause, comfort, conservatism, contribution, decrease, deprivation, distribution, ease, effectiveness, efficiency, failure, freedom, frequency, harmony, humidity, importance, impotence, inactivity, independence, inexperience, influence, insignificance, isolation, lack, luxury, magnitude, merit, neglect, obscurity, peace, percentage, position, privacy, probability, pronoun, proportion, prosperity, quiet, risk, safety, scarcity, seclusion, silence, simplicity, size, stability, status, stranger, strength, success, term, uniformity, unknown, weakness, wealth