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I've not heard of a modern country where debt is inherited by the children. However, you said, 'estate', which can be sent into receivership due to defaulting
by arcanus 10y ago
I've not heard of a modern country where debt is inherited by the children.
However, you said, 'estate', which can be sent into receivership due to defaulting on loans. So your assets may be seized before they are transferred to the next generation.
But the debt itself is certainly not transferable, unless your descendants have co-signed on a loan.
- lazyjones 10y ago> I've not heard of a modern country where debt is inherited by the children. In Austria, you can opt-out and have 2 more choices: inherit "unconditionally", which means you inherit before even knowing the net worth / debt status (creditors may surprise you with bills afterwards - it happened to me personally, an uncle demanded €25k for nursing my mother after she had died), as well as "conditionally", which means creditors get a time frame for disclosing their demands (demands made later are void) and at the end you know exactly what the net worth/debt is and you can choose not to inherit it (this takes longer and is more expensive).
- cableshaft 10y agoSo the girl I dated awhile back who said she had $90k in debt because she inherited it from her mother when she died, that wasn't legit? She mentioned something about signing something and not realizing it at the time, though. This is in the U.S. It wouldn't surprise me too much if it wasn't true, as there were other things she said and did that didn't seem completely honest and straightforward, but I didn't see any reason for her to lie about that.
- refurb 10y agoShe probably co-signed on a loan.
- dagw 10y agoShe mentioned something about signing something and not realizing it at the time, though. That will do it. That "something" was probably an agreement to co-sign the loan, and thus making it her sole responsibility if the other party fails to pay.
- cableshaft 10y agoCan that be done posthumously? Because if I remember correctly she said it was after her mother died, like there was something in the will, asset-wise (or supposed to be) that she signed for, and it turned out she ended up with the debt. I don't quite remember her wording, this was several years ago.
- gbacon 10y agoSounds like she may have cosigned on the debt. The reason lenders ask for cosigners is because the would-be debtor is a poor credit risk. They want someone to go after in the likely event that the person stops servicing the debt. Never, never cosign someone else’s debt. Yes, here come a million and one what-ifs for this and that goofy situation. Don’t do it.
- a-priori 10y agoAs I understand it, shady creditors and debt collectors will sometimes contact the deceased's family. They claim you have inherited the debt, or have some moral obligation to make good on their relative's debts, then pressure you to sign paperwork acknowledging that fact. Then they try to collect the money from you instead saying it's your debt, using that same logic and now that paperwork you signed. It's a deceptive and despicable scam, but I'm not a lawyer and I don't know the legalities of it. I suspect, in most jurisdictions anyway, it's not legally enforceable and she could probably have refused to pay anything and the creditor wouldn't have a leg to stand on.
- nommm-nommm 10y ago