Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Maryland
Inheriting debt
I would like a shorthand explanation of whether, or under what circumstances, an individual can inherit pure debt (such as credit card debt or student loan debt, etc). My concern is due to my wife. Via adoption, divorce, and remarriage, she currently has six parents, all from large families with uncertain finances. She has never co-signed anything for any of them.
Aside from a house with a half-paid mortgage, or a car with a half-paid loan, is it possible for her (and me) to inherit any kind of debt from any of them?
(other factors: we live in MD, they all live in PA; we've recently met her birth parents, who did not raise her; she has numerous half-siblings)
Thank you
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Inheriting debt
Debt, as such, is not inherited. However, if a person dies and has assets, those assets generally must be used to pay his or her just debts before anyone can inherit the property. And in the case of real estate or other property that is subject to indebtedness, the property passes to the heirs subject to the existing mortgage or other indebtedness.
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