RebelCapitalist: Financial Information for the Rest of Us | Beware: Don’t Assume Debts of Deceased Family Members

Beware: Don’t Assume Debts of Deceased Family Members

Mar 12, 2009 | By: Mr_Blue | Comments | Permalink | Tags: debt, credit cards, debt collection

Debt collectors are having some success collecting outstanding debts of dead people from living family members. This practice is open to abuse from the debt collection industry because who is truly monitoring what they say. Debt collectors apparently have trained collectors that are good at “empathic active listening,” Please be careful.

Family members are not required by law to assume the debts of deceased loved ones. The debt of a deceased person remains part of that person’s estate (the remaining assets and liabilities). Debt collectors are trying to take advantage of people who are in a vulnerable and emotional state and who don’t know that they are not obligated to pay the debt’s of deceased loved ones.

Hopefully, congress will follow through with calls to investigate this debt collection practice. But in the meantime we should just hang-up the phone when a debt collector is calling about a deceased loved one’s debt. And report the call to the Federal Trade Commission..