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If Mom or Dad dies, do I inherit their debts? I’m Steve Kramer. I’m a Florida estate planning and probate attorney. And people often have questions about what happens once their parents die. Do they inherit their parents’ debts? And the answer is debt doesn’t really pass from your parents to you. Now, what does happen is if your parents go through a probate, creditors can come in and they can claim a piece of the estate. So if your parents had assets, well, the creditors can take some of those assets away. But you don’t inherit the debts themselves. And it’s, you know, potential that, you know, your parents might have a $100,000 dollars in assets and $200,000 dollars in debts. Well, you know, at the end of the day you might not inherit anything because there were more debts than assets but you don’t owe anything. Now the only kind of exception to this is let’s say if your parents owned a house and that house has a lien on it. Well, you know, in that process you would inherit the house, but you’d also inherit the house with the debts that are on it. So that would play a role. But you know, you don’t have to do that. You don’t have to accept that, you can refuse the property if that was in your interest. And that’s important to know because a lot of people are confused about the estate planning and probate process, and they have questions about it, and I deal with this stuff all the time, day in day out. And if you need any help with this or any other legal issue, I’m ready to help. That’s why we’re one firm for life. We’re ready to help with anything. So give me a call, pick up the phone. Thanks for watching, I’m Steve Kramer.
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