Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in Georgia

No, they will not be personally responsible for your debts. Your estate will be, and that includes your house and other property that will be sold to pay the debt.

This is not a credit collection issue. Attorney Riddle is correct. Assuming you die with a will and leave the house to your son in the will, your son will not be directly liable for things like your credit card debt. But your son and any of your other beneficiaries of your probate estate will be indirectly liable. By that I mean that all valid claims against your estate must be paid before your beneficiaries inherit anything.

That means that if you died with little liquid assets but a house in which there was substantial equity or which was owned free and clear. the house would have to be sold and the money into your estate to pay the debts or your son or executor would have to find some other way of getting money into the estate to pay your bills.

I don't know your age or your other debts/income/assets. There are all kinds of things which can be done with proper planning, both from the debt side and the estate planning side. You need to think about how these debts are going to be resolved if you are relatively young so that you do not leave your son and beneficiaries a mess when you die. On the other hand, there may be a way, with proper planning, to die "broke" and leave no assets to probate. In that event, if there are no probate assets, there is nothing for creditors to take.

These are the types of things that have to be discussed in confidence with an attorney to see where you are at and what makes sense for you. If you want an evaluation, please contact me at [email protected].