To follow my previous post on what happens to your individual debts when you die, this post will speak to joint debts and debts that are guaranteed by a third party (parent or spouse, most likely). Joint debts, and those guaranteed by a third party, will survive you. Since there is a second party obligated to the debt, your death…

When you die your debts become a debt of your estate, generally speaking. There are some debts that terminate on death (federal student loans that aren’t guaranteed by someone else, for example), but most debts need to be dealt with by your executor. Your executor has a duty to dispose of your debts with the assets of your estate as…

Dying with a mortgage on your house can be an issue for your heirs. If they want to sell the house, it’s no big deal – the mortgage will be paid out of the sale proceeds. But what if they want to keep the house? In North Carolina, unless you direct in your will to have the mortgage paid off…

Part 3 of 3 – protect your assets so that your potential creditors don’t claim all of your estate. Plenty of options – just plan ahead! Probate is essentially a state-mandated mechanism to make sure your estate pays all of its creditors before paying its beneficiaries. So, in order to make sure your estate’s assets don’t get substantially depleted by…