Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Washington
What to do about debt from deceased parents?
My father past away a few months ago & my mother died before him. My father had credit card debt when he past away and no assets to repay the debt. He had a living trust and I was the trustee. I payed for his funeral expenses & as much of his debt that I could with his savings which amounted to less than $5000. At this point, I have been making the payments on his debt out of my own personal money because I felt it was the right thing to do and did not know what else to do. I have been told recently that I am not responsible for these debts and that I should notify the credit card companies that he has pasy away and send them a copy of the death certificate and they should ''forgive'' his debts/ is this correct information? How do I go about doing this? I really need some advice. Thank you
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: What to do about debt from deceased parents?
Call the person who wrote your father's trust, who is in the best position to answer your questions regarding what to do next.
You may need to do a probate. Washington has simple easy probate rules and there is a special way to manage an estate where the assets are less than $60K.
Part of the probate is to publish notice to creditors, who can then object. But there isn't much they can really do about collecting any more money from you - because it is not your debt.
They will string you along because you are giving them what they want - more money. STOP.
You are under NO OBLIGATION to pay your parents debts out of your pocket, and actually you should petition the estate for reimbursement.
This is not self-help law. Call your county's Bar Association, and get a referral to an atty who does this for a living, gather up all the relevant documents you have and go see that person.
As soon as you can. Powell
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