{"id":522473,"date":"2026-01-17T09:48:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T09:48:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/522473\/"},"modified":"2026-01-17T09:48:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T09:48:10","slug":"i-have-nothing-of-value-im-62-and-a-cancer-survivor-who-rents-her-home-and-has-credit-card-debt-when-i-die-what-will-my-two-daughters-have-to-pay-for","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/522473\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I have nothing of value.\u2019 I\u2019m 62 and a cancer survivor who rents her home and has credit card debt. When I die, what will my two daughters have to pay for?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Question:<\/strong> \u201cI\u2019m 62 years old and I have no estate and nothing of value. I rent my home and I own my vehicle. After being diagnosed with colon cancer, I\u2019m now cancer-free and plan to enjoy the rest of my years, but I\u2019ve been wondering: Are my two adult daughters responsible for any of my credit card debt when I pass away? What happens to my debt when I\u2019m gone? Is anyone responsible for it? Who can help me understand this and plan for it?\u201d<\/p>\n

Answer<\/strong>: Wondering what will happen to your debt after passing away is an understandable concern, especially if you\u2019re wanting to enjoy the years ahead without leaving loose ends for your loved ones, says Brit Simon, National Debt Relief\u2019s chief experience officer. <\/p>\n

As for what pros might be able to help you, in your case, your estate seems relatively simple and you may not need a financial adviser or estate planning attorney. (At a later date, if you do want a financial adviser, you can visit sites like CFP Board or NAPFA or use this free tool to get matched with financial advisers<\/a>, from our ad partner SmartAsset.) That said, if you are looking to create a plan to give, say, your car or other assets away, it may be smart to speak with an estate planning attorney or at least create a basic will online if you can\u2019t afford to work with an attorney on a full estate plan. More on this below. <\/p>\n

What will happen to your debts?<\/p>\n

\u201cThe good news is that unpaid debts often don\u2019t automatically pass to family members. In a situation without a mortgage or car loan, there may only be unsecured debts that would not be passed on. Unsecured debt would include any credit card debt, medical bills and personal loans that are not tied to collateral,\u201d says Simon.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Typically, unsecured debts are paid from the deceased\u2019s estate, since creditors can\u2019t use property to settle balances. \u201cIf the estate has little or no value, then these debts are often left unpaid. This means any credit card debt or medical bills would likely not be passed on to family members. They may still be responsible for the debt if they were joint account holders or co-signers, but not if they were an authorized user on the credit cards,\u201d says Simon. Additionally, if they never had anything to do with the credit cards at all, they\u2019d also likely not be responsible for any debt payments.<\/p>\n

Credit card debt is usually only a risk to the person whose Social Security number is on the account, says attorney Michelle Creeden at The Law Office of Fox, Kohler & Associates. \u201cThis means as long as your daughters are not on your cards as a joint cardholder, they will not be responsible for those debts. An authorized user is someone you allow to borrow money in your name. Your daughters could be listed as authorized users and they would still not be responsible for the credit card debt,\u201d says Creeden.\u00a0<\/p>\n

What\u2019s more, Creeden says, when someone dies, a credit card company is not allowed to scare family members into paying debts. \u201cTheir only recourse is to attempt to collect from whatever the deceased person leaves behind. As you are a renter, they will likely only send some letters addressed to the estate of the deceased person\u2019s name. If there are truly no assets, then the credit card company will have no way to collect and will attempt to write off the debts to get a tax break,\u201d says Creeden.<\/p>\n

In community property states, there are some exceptions to be aware of. \u201cIn California, Texas and Arizona, a surviving spouse can be responsible for certain debts incurred during the marriage, even if the account was only in one name,\u201d says Simon. Children however, are not personally responsible for their parent\u2019s debts unless the child was a joint account holder.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Additionally, state law may be important for you. \u201cIn some states, an asset like a car or bank account may require a probate estate be opened to transfer ownership of the asset. I tend to advise my clients to try to avoid probate if possible,\u201d says Creeden. To do this, you\u2019ll want to create beneficiary designations, transfer-on-death registrations or a living revocable trust. For someone with low assets, this can often be done without hiring an attorney and instead using online low-cost services like Rocket Lawyer or LegalZoom.<\/p>\n

Looking at the big picture, a person\u2019s estate is legally responsible for their debts, which become due upon death. \u201cThe estate is responsible for paying these debts using assets and there is usually an opportunity to negotiate and reduce some debts. Ultimately, if the estate does not have enough assets to pay the debts, the debts may go unpaid,\u201d says Delaney Haley, certified trust and fiduciary adviser and head of customer care at estate settlement site Alix.<\/p>\n

What pro should you look to for help? <\/p>\n

If you\u2019re looking to create a plan to protect your family from debts, it\u2019s best to speak with an estate planning attorney. \u201cThat\u2019s the best bet for handling any circumstances that have to do with money after someone has passed. They can establish a living trust so that all matters, including credit card debt, are written into the trust so that the owner or party that is the borrower has their final wishes handled appropriately,\u201d says Steven C. Conners, president at Conners Wealth Management. Adds Simon: \u201cClarify what obligations will apply to your situation and the steps you can take to reduce uncertainty.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jillian Stephenson, certified public accountant and assistant teaching professor at Carnegie Mellon University\u2019s Heinz College says it\u2019s prudent to consider estate planning prior to death to protect the interest of the estate and any beneficiaries. \u201cAs an estate is settled, any debts are satisfied by the estate assets. In this case, the estate would consist primarily of the vehicle and some small possessions. The estate assets would then be used to satisfy the credit card debt, but if the estate\u2019s assets are insufficient, any remaining debt would go unpaid,\u201d says Stephenson.<\/p>\n

Have an issue with your financial planner or looking for a new one? Email questions or concerns to picks@marketwatch.com<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Questions edited for brevity and clarity. By emailing your questions to The Advicer, you agree to have them published anonymously on MarketWatch; they may appear anonymously in other media and platforms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Question: \u201cI\u2019m 62 years old and I have no estate and nothing of value. I rent my home…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":522474,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[529,8392,217879,64,19451,190830,38360,29475,232403,232401,232402,216964,60,55406,57,210,190843,4313,216965,88900,216963,255,3234,190263,47587,216969,216966,5677,216967,216970,216968,5660,158,1061,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-522473","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-analysis","9":"tag-banking","10":"tag-banking-credit","11":"tag-business","12":"tag-corporate","13":"tag-corporate-industrial-news","14":"tag-credit","15":"tag-credit-cards","16":"tag-credit-types","17":"tag-credit-types-services","18":"tag-electronic-payment-systems","19":"tag-financial-investment-services","20":"tag-financial-services","21":"tag-financial-technology","22":"tag-general-news","23":"tag-health","24":"tag-industrial-news","25":"tag-investing","26":"tag-investing-securities","27":"tag-medical-conditions","28":"tag-mpsmartasset","29":"tag-personal-finance","30":"tag-political","31":"tag-political-general-news","32":"tag-securities","33":"tag-selection-of-top-stories","34":"tag-selection-of-top-stories-trends-analysis","35":"tag-services","36":"tag-suggested-reading-industry-news","37":"tag-suggested-reading-investing","38":"tag-suggested-reading-investing-securities","39":"tag-synd","40":"tag-technology","41":"tag-trends","42":"tag-united-states","43":"tag-unitedstates","44":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=522473"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522473\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/522474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=522473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=522473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=522473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}