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Question:

My mother passed away on February 5, 2025, and she had a living trust set up with my brother and me as beneficiaries. My mom had four credit cards with outstanding balances totaling about $4,000 all together. Our attorney said not to pay them because it’s likely that they would forgive the debt. And we did call all of them and we sent the death certificate to them, but we kept getting the bills in the mail. More recently, we got a letter from some debt collection company, asking for the executor of my mom’s estate to call them. Can we ignore them?

Response:

Yes, you can probably ignore these claims, the reason being that it sounds like your mother had no probate estate.

If all your mother’s assets were in her trust, then they passed to you and your brother without going through probate. While the laws can differ from state to state, typically the debts one leaves at death are only payable from their probate estate. No estate, no legal obligation to pay the bills.

I stress the word legal because you might also want to consider the moral obligation. In general, people should pay their debts if they can afford to do so. Our whole economy depends in part on this understanding. While you may feel no moral obligation towards paying a credit card company or bank, if your mother received services or goods that she charged to the cards, you may want to consider paying them off. On the other hand, if most of the outstanding balance can be attributed to the usurious interest rates many cards charge, you may feel less of an obligation.

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