Debts following Death

Psychokatz

My friends father passed away suddenly last night - leaving her as his only remaining relative. We are aware that there may be rather a significant amount of debt, although very little if anything in his estate to satisfy the creditors. Will she be liable for the debt.. or just responsible for ensuring payment from his estate?

In addition, we think he may have had some life assurance cover through work - how would we find out if this is the case.

I am desperate for some advice, my friend and her dad had a very diffucult relationship and had only just started to get to know each other again.. Therefore there is so little information to hand.

Many thanks x

Astaroth

Insensitivity is not a criminal offence and to be honest, things have to go fairly far for the police to bother themselves with allegations of harassment - they (probably rightly) say that catching murders etc are higher priority to them.

Aly is correct in saying that the debt is only against the estate and not anyone who out lives the debtor (assuming the debt is only in a single name - joint debt passes to the other named people on the debt).

The executor typically would handle these things though if she is the sole relative and little/ no estate I would guess she may well be the executor. If she isnt then simply redirect any creditor to the executor and let them handle it.

I would guess the best way to check on the life insurance front is to speak to the HR department of where he worked if he hadnt kept copies of his contract etc.

sammyhammy

Also, if the life cover is nominated to your friend and does not form part of the estate she may keep it irrespective of the debts. Ask the life company if anyone was named as a benficiary of the policy. Every compny I've worked for paying this benefit has asked me to name the person to pay in the event of my death.

An insolvent estate is like a bankrupt person - the creditors may only end up with a percentage of the money owed. In my experience some debts may be written off if the company finds it to be economically unviable to pursue the money.

I had an estate with lots of debts and one asset - the house. It took a long time to sell and I kept all the creditors up to date. When the house eventually sold I contacted each creditor for a final figure and half (some utilities, some loans/credit cards) had written off the debts. All were under £1,000.

HTH