Debt settled after death of account holder

pieterman

My problem is that my late father-in-law had a credit card, unfortunattelly after his death the insurance company refused to pay out, they claim he had not informed them about his medical history, my mother-in-law is now getting harassing phone calls from the credit card company trying to reclaim the money.
Has anyone got any tips or advise for us to settle this issue. My mother-in-law hasn't got the money to settle the debt.
Thanks.

ironlady2022

Is there no way they can work out a payment plan between them?

lisyloo

Did your father-in-law leave any money in his estate?
Was the house jointly owned?

McKneff

Did he have a car, any personal jewellry,
If he had nothing at all they cannot be paid and the debt, if its in his name only must be written off

The cc company are bordering on harrassment and must be told to stop.

Take some advice on gettng the premiums back from the insurance company, if he paid them and he wasnt actually insured then he has been paying for nothing - worth a try.

scottishblondie

It's an unfortunate situation. If your FIL had any assets (cash, property etc) then these make up his estate after his death, and any outstanding debts are to be settled out of this estate (after the payment of funeral expenses). If these assets were joint between MIL and FIL, I'm not sure what happens. It might be that half of these are considered the estate and whatever is left in there should be used to settle outstanding debts, but hopefully someone more knowledgeable will be able to say.

If he had no assets at all, or the funeral expenses used it all, then the CC company will have to write the debt off. She would need to write to the CC company including a copy of the death certificate and some kind of proof that there is nothing in the estate to pay off the debt. As long as the debt was solely in FIL's name your MIL has no liability for it after his death.

MrRedundant

Lets not get ahead of ourselves here.

1) Have the CC been notified of the death?


2) What is the current position of the estate.

The card should be settled from his estate and then written off if a balance. Your MIL needs to ask the executor to contact the credit card company and notify of the death and ask that they deal with it as part of the estate.

Do not get involved in any of the above as its not really your MIL to do this. The executor should deal with the clearing of the card with the estate if necessary.

lisyloo

If these assets were joint between MIL and FIL, I'm not sure what happens.

If property is held jointly then it depend on how it is held.
Normally it's held as joint tennants which means the house would automatically pass to the other person outside of the estate.
If it is held as "tennants in common" then the FILs half would go into the estate.

However in practice they would not be able to sell the house.

But we do need more info here.