Unpaid credit card debt will not simply disappear. Each unpaid credit card will become a debt of an estate.

Q: An 86-year-old friend has a lot of credit card debt. Her financial adviser told her to stop paying anything more than the minimum required payments in the belief that when she dies, all of her credit card debt will be erased. She plans to keep using the cards but only pay the minimums. I have never heard of such a thing. I thought unpaid debt is the responsibility of the estate. Will her credit card debt really go away, and should she only pay the minimums?

A: Your friend has most likely received some bad advice. Unpaid credit card debt will not simply disappear after she dies. Instead, each unpaid credit card will become a debt of her estate.

Most people who have financial advisers don't die insolvent. She presumably has other assets that could........

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