Are You Dead? We Don’t Care, We’re Coming!

Apparently, there is one group of people who are paying their bills.  Those people are the dead.  The New York Times had an interesting article talking about how there is an expanding niche of debt collection.  Collecting from the dead.

Generally, In Michigan survivors are not required to pay a dead relative’s bills from their own assets.  That said, creditors can seek payment from the estate or the property inherited from the deceased.

This isn’t stopping the debt collection agencies.  They are teaching their new hires “emphatic active listening” and then praying upon the sentiment and lack of legal knowledge of the deceased’s relatives.

Many survivors are shock and appalled at this practice.  But too many are not aware of their legal rights in not paying the debts of the deceased.  From the article:

One widow wrote that a collector “was so nice to me, even when I could only pay $5 a month a few times.” Saying that money was “so tight” after her husband died, she added: “It was very hard for me, and to get a job at my age. Thank you.”

You can read the entire article here.

Please, consult a Michigan probate or Michigan estate administration attorney if you are getting calls to pay the debt of a deceased relative before you send any money in.

-Christopher J. Berry, Esq.
Michigan Probate Lawyer | Michigan Estate Administration Lawyer