a hypothetical

Suppose a person racks up a bunch of debt living a life beyond his means. Then he dies, deeply in debt. What happens to those debts? Do the companies just eat the losses, or can they go after the person's estate, or demand payment from his family? If they can/do take from his estate, what happens if that still isn't enough to cover everything? Or if there are so many companies going after the estate, they can't all take enough to clear the debt? This is assuming the man's single. I assume if he's not, the debt passes on to his wife.

And no, I'm not in debt. No, I'm not considering faking my own death or really doing the deed. No, as far as I know, I'm not in someone's will who's deeply in debt. I'm just curious.

 

I had a friend who died several years ago. Not married, no kids. Not deeply in debt, as far as I know, but certainly had credit-card debt.

In his case, the credit-card companies absorbed his debts... his parents were not on the hook for that.

 

The estate liquidation will pay off creditors until the residual runs out. Then, creditors are SOL. No one else is liable for the debt, unless they are a co-signee.