When the Only Thing That You Inherit Is Debt
You might not think much of your parent’s finances, after all, they are your parents and know what they’re doing with their money. You might want to give this a second thought, though.
“I was on the phone with a gentleman in the South whose 95-year-old mother-in-law had fallen a few months ago, was injured, and needed to be moved into assisted living,” Christensen recalled. “His wife and brother-in-law started going through her finances and found out that she had $44,000 in credit card debt.” The family members were all concerned that the credit card companies were going to make them responsible for the debt. Christensen informed them that they could not be held responsible for the debt, given that credit card debt is unsecured, which means a credit card company can’t go after an heir’s property. However, the family might be at risk of losing anything bequeathed to them by the estate
But the family may lose anything bequeathed to them by the estate as lenders try to make their debt whole and this way, you can inherit a debt.
