What bills do I pay first when someone dies?

The topic of what happens when someone dies can be tricky, and a lot of the answers are “it depends.” Although I am trying to generalize here, please seek legal advice from an attorney (whether me or someone else) about your particular circumstance. This post should not substitute speaking with an attorney; it is not legal advice upon which you should rely.

In general, when someone dies, there are some bills (debts) and there may be some assets. The assets are considered the person’s “estate” (aka everything they owned at the time they died).

A person’s estate is responsible for paying off debts before anyone gets anything. This means that if a trust says that George gets the person’s house, George in fact does not get the house until all the bills are paid. If there are millions of dollars of medical bills, and there’s only $25 in the bank account, but the house is worth $500,000, then the house is going to have to be sold in order to pay the bills. Which might mean that George doesn’t end up getting the house.

George may say: “I’ll pay the bills! And then I get the house!” But that’s not how an estate works. George isn’t entitled to the house until the estate’s debts are at zero.

Additionally, George shouldn’t pay the bills because no one is obligated to pay the bills** except the person who died. So if the person who died has the house worth $500,000 and $25 in the bank account but $600,025 in debt, then most of the time, the extra $100,000 just doesn’t get paid. And George isn’t obligated to pay that either.

**Those are there because this is completely different for a married couple, partly because of community property laws in California.

If you are an executor of an estate or you are helping a family when a loved one dies, please do NOT pay a bill without talking to an attorney. What you need to pay and what you don’t need to pay may vary depending on the circumstances.

Please contact me for a complimentary consultation.