Friends Husband passed away with credit card debt, any advice appreciated

NickX

JimmyTheWig wrote: »

If there is an estate that can afford to pay the debt and the next of kin is set to inherit this estate, surely there is logic that says the next of kin should just pay the bill? If the bills go unpaid the estate will get hit by charges and interest and the next of kin will lose out in the end.

I see your point Jimmy but my understanding is that the Beneficiary has no liability for the deceased debts. Effectively if the estate can withstand it, the debts are paid from this BEFORE the funds actually get to the Beneficiary (along with solicitors fees, funeral costs and everything else). What is left after expenses is the amount that is inherited.

You are correct in that the debts will reduce the amount of inheritance but there is no legal responsibility on the next of kin to settle those debts.

JimmyTheWig

I take your points, but if I was the next of kin and pretty confident I'd be inheriting, I'd be concerned about charges and interest mounting up by not paying.
I understand that it's the estates problem and not mine, but it would be in my interest to maximise the estate.

lisyloo

I'd be concerned about charges and interest mounting up by not paying

It might be possible to get the account "frozen" after death i.e. no interest mounting up or charges.

NickX

JimmyTheWig wrote: »

I take your points, but if I was the next of kin and pretty confident I'd be inheriting, I'd be concerned about charges and interest mounting up by not paying.
I understand that it's the estates problem and not mine, but it would be in my interest to maximise the estate.

You are ofcourse correct that it is in the interests of the Beneficiary to ensure that debts are settled quickly.

Unfortunately my own experiences of probate has been that once any debts have been paid, the solicitor has been paid, the funeral has been paid for, inheritance tax has been paid etc the amount actually passed on is quite often substantially less than people were expecting.

miked1958

My older brother is the excecutor. My dad had a credit card balance of around $3500 when he passed away. My dad lived in Connecticut. When my dad passed away, we had no way to get my family of 5 up to Connecicut on such short notice. My brother used my Dads CC to pay for the airfare to get my family and my other brother who lives in Florida up to Connecticut. The credit card was used one other time to purchase airfare to get my mom escorted down to florida to live with my brother. She is 85 and needs 24 hour care. All totalled up about 2000 was used on his card after he had passed away. An atty that we were getting advice from said there was no need back then to alert them that he had passed away as we were trying to get my mom state up on state. Mom was not an authorized user on his account. My brother has continued to pay the CC bills monthly payments of $106 every month this year. My question is since there is no estate ( condo worth 40k will be turned over to state for title 19 purposes) and not other assets in my dads name does this credit card balance of now $5500 have to be paid back. This card was never used for anything other then the Funeral and getting mom to Florida. Are we liable for the whole balance, what was charged after he passed, or none of it??? Should we just send in copy of Death cert and stop making payments??

CLAPTON

miked1958 wrote: »

My older brother is the excecutor. My dad had a credit card balance of around $3500 when he passed away. My dad lived in Connecticut. When my dad passed away, we had no way to get my family of 5 up to Connecicut on such short notice. My brother used my Dads CC to pay for the airfare to get my family and my other brother who lives in Florida up to Connecticut. The credit card was used one other time to purchase airfare to get my mom escorted down to florida to live with my brother. She is 85 and needs 24 hour care. All totalled up about 2000 was used on his card after he had passed away. An atty that we were getting advice from said there was no need back then to alert them that he had passed away as we were trying to get my mom state up on state. Mom was not an authorized user on his account. My brother has continued to pay the CC bills monthly payments of $106 every month this year. My question is since there is no estate ( condo worth 40k will be turned over to state for title 19 purposes) and not other assets in my dads name does this credit card balance of now $5500 have to be paid back. This card was never used for anything other then the Funeral and getting mom to Florida. Are we liable for the whole balance, what was charged after he passed, or none of it??? Should we just send in copy of Death cert and stop making payments??

This is a UK board so its unlikely that anyone can help you with US law.

In the UK what your brother did would be classified as fraud.