If my mom died and had a trust but her estate is insolvent, do I have to sell the house we still live in to pay her credit cards and mortgage?
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If my mom died and had a trust but her estate is insolvent, do I have to sell the house we still live in to pay her credit cards and mortgage?
Asked on October 21, 2011 under Estate Planning, California
Answers:
MD, Member, California Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 12 years ago | Contributor
Your trust account is your trust account. If the property from the trust has already gone to you, do not do a thing. The credit cards and mortgage company may simply have to eat their losses if you took property they didn't get to in time to sue. Now this is different if you inherited the home and that home was in the trust. If you inherited the home, and the home had a mortgage, you took subject to the mortgage. This means you took without being responsible for the mortgage. That means now the mortgage company will have to decide if the security interest it had in that home is still defendable and enforceable and if so, it could place a lien on your home for the amount owed. Contact the estate attorney and see if you can come up with a better plan on this matter. Same issue with the credit cards; those are not your debts. Assuming you took all the property, the credit card company would have to find properties and assets still in your mom's name to sue.
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