In community property states, spouses share responsibility for certain marital debts.

If you borrowed the money as a co-signer, you are responsible for the debt.

If you were joint account owners, then you may share responsibility for the debt with the other account owner’s estate.

If you were an authorized user on a credit card account belonging to the person who died, you are not responsible for the debt.You may be responsible if it is a shared debt. For example, when state law requires the estate to pay survivors first, there may not be any money left over to pay debts. If there is no estate, or the estate can’t pay, then the debt generally will not be paid. When someone dies with an unpaid debt, if the debt needs to be paid, it should be paid from any money or property they left behind according to state law. You are not responsible for someone else’s debt. If anyone ever pressures you for personal or financial information over the phone, just hang up! Don’t assume you have to pay Scammers are great at making people feel a false sense of urgency or fear, and they love to target people during hard times, like when you’ve lost a loved one. If you’re not sure that a debt is legitimate, you can always ask the debt collector to send information about the debt, in writing. This is a very common experience among survivors. If you are a surviving spouse or family member, you may even wonder if that debt now belongs to you. When a loved one dies, you may learn about debts they owed before they died.

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