When a husband dies, is his wife responsible for his credit card debt?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:TOD/POD, Trust. Leave nothing in an Estate.

When my father passed we had to pay his debts before dispersing the $$ from his trusts. Can you imagine how great seniors would have it if no one ever had to pay in the end. Just ring up massve cc debt. I guess no one would ever issue a senior a card in that case,

If the estate has no assets, then sure seniors can run up their cc at the end. It's not like a kid would be responsible. They cannot go after anyone except who is on the card or the estate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:His estate will be. So, if he has anything to pass along to her, she’d have to use that to pay the debt. However, if she calls the credit card company after he dies and says it’s a small estate, they might just write it off if her name isn’t in the account.

If my spouse or I pass, the estate will be essentially worthless. Every account and large asset we own is a joint tenancy with a right of survivorship. I thought most couples had that setup

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:His estate will be. So, if he has anything to pass along to her, she’d have to use that to pay the debt. However, if she calls the credit card company after he dies and says it’s a small estate, they might just write it off if her name isn’t in the account.

If my spouse or I pass, the estate will be essentially worthless. Every account and large asset we own is a joint tenancy with a right of survivorship. I thought most couples had that setup

I assume a debtor can lien an account if it was jointly owned by the deceased, so how does this help you? If the estate doesn't go 100% to the surviving spouse and the surviving spouse's name is not on the credit card debt, then the estate will pay the debt before any distributions to heirs. I don't understand how a trust can get around this. Explain.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:His estate will be. So, if he has anything to pass along to her, she’d have to use that to pay the debt. However, if she calls the credit card company after he dies and says it’s a small estate, they might just write it off if her name isn’t in the account.

If my spouse or I pass, the estate will be essentially worthless. Every account and large asset we own is a joint tenancy with a right of survivorship. I thought most couples had that setup

I assume a *debtor can lien an account if it was jointly owned by the deceased, so how does this help you? If the estate doesn't go 100% to the surviving spouse and the surviving spouse's name is not on the credit card debt, then the estate will pay the debt before any distributions to heirs. I don't understand how a trust can get around this. Explain.

*creditor. So, say your spouse files separately and doesn't pay their taxes, then dies, and you own your home as JTROS. Can't the IRS lien the home?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:His estate will be. So, if he has anything to pass along to her, she’d have to use that to pay the debt. However, if she calls the credit card company after he dies and says it’s a small estate, they might just write it off if her name isn’t in the account.

If my spouse or I pass, the estate will be essentially worthless. Every account and large asset we own is a joint tenancy with a right of survivorship. I thought most couples had that setup

I assume a debtor can lien an account if it was jointly owned by the deceased, so how does this help you? If the estate doesn't go 100% to the surviving spouse and the surviving spouse's name is not on the credit card debt, then the estate will pay the debt before any distributions to heirs. I don't understand how a trust can get around this. Explain.

That not how joint tenancy accounts work. The accounts are never part of the estate. They can place liens during the life of a tenant, but once a tenant dies, so does their interest in the account

[Anonymous]

Crazy that a couple could have a million dollars in shared assets but there is not requirement to pay off any debt. I guess that is why the fees a re so high.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:TOD/POD, Trust. Leave nothing in an Estate.

What does that mean?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Crazy that a couple could have a million dollars in shared assets but there is not requirement to pay off any debt. I guess that is why the fees a re so high.

that's not the reason. Most people with "a million dollars" plus in shared assets don't have massive debt. They typically pay their bills, so at most it would be the last months charges (not many are spending more than $5-6K/month if even that. Fees are high because of people worth not much who simply charge shit and dont' believe in actually paying their bills

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:TOD/POD, Trust. Leave nothing in an Estate.

What does that mean?

TOD - transfer on death
POD - payable on death

You can make this designation on bank accounts. It is in essence the same thing as naming a beneficiary. The money goes directly to the person named. It is not part of the estate and does not go through probate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If she’s not on the account probably not. But the estate will be.

+1 and his estate will go to probate, and his debts get paid first before any inheritance gets paid out

Did he have a will? If not, then in MD his wife will get half and his kids get the other half

Never heard of that. When one of my parents died, the other parent received it all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If she’s not on the account probably not. But the estate will be.

+1 and his estate will go to probate, and his debts get paid first before any inheritance gets paid out

Did he have a will? If not, then in MD his wife will get half and his kids get the other half

Never heard of that. When one of my parents died, the other parent received it all.

Each state has its own rules for intestate succession and we should really have a sticky because it comes up all the time

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:TOD/POD, Trust. Leave nothing in an Estate.

What does that mean?

TOD - transfer on death
POD - payable on death

You can make this designation on bank accounts. It is in essence the same thing as naming a beneficiary. The money goes directly to the person named. It is not part of the estate and does not go through probate.

Would this mean that someone could have a joint account with spouse, later create a POD to say an adult child (or friend or whoever) and that half of the account would go to the adult child and not the spouse? In other words does the POD supersede the joint holder?
Or do both spouses have to do the POD together?