Does the debt of a deceased person have to be paid?
On One Hand: The Deceased’s Estate Is ChargedDebts and death are complicated. When a person dies and leaves outstanding debts behind, what usually happens, according to “creditcards.com,” is their remaining estate or assets are charged. This only applies to debt that the deceased person holds in his name only. Anything left is distributed according to what is indicated in the deceased’s will.On the Other: The Estate Could Be InsolventAn insolvent estate isn’t large enough to cover the remaining debts, in which case the debts are ranked in order of importance with those at the top of the list paid first. The actual order in which debts are paid is determined by the laws of individual states. According to “creditcards.com,” quite often credit card debts go unpaid when an estate is declared insolvent. They usually rank quite low in terms of the deceased’s other debts, and it is illegal to pass the debt to another person.Bottom LineDebts of a deceased person do need to be paid when the rem
