Disclaimer: As far as I know, I’m not going to die soon. I’m asking this question in case that changes someday.
So I was just thinking about this and thought it might be a good idea to leave your family some money while fucking over the bank on your way out. The creditors would go after your worthless estate only to find the recently purchased assets are missing, but you’re already dead and can’t be charged with fraud. And if you do some decent opsec, they can’t implicate your family either.
I assume without laundering the money, your family would not be able to use it on anything big. And your available credit wouldn’t be enough to make a massive quality of life improvement for your loved ones. But even if they only spend it on groceries and hobbies for a few years, it would make a nice goodbye gift.
Am I missing anything that makes this a horrible or unacceptably risky idea?
Yes, I am not 100℅ sure, but I think debt collectors. My little understanding is that the bank may not want to go through the hassle of sorting this out themselves if the debt is small and the applicable laws complex, in which case they can sell the debt to a debt collector. Whatever person or agency is motivated enough to buy that debt might have some good experience in getting paid back. They can annoy your family for a while, and they might know of some laws that they can use to put pressure.
But family left behind, if they weren’t a co-signer, have no responsibility to a dead family member debt,.unless they’re a spouse.
Sure they will try and threaten you and make you sign papers that you are responsible for their death, but as long as nobody signs anything there’s nothing a debt collector can do.
Which is kind of the point.
All it takes is one family member to get harassed enough (or at the right time) to agree to something or sign some document and collection agency’s shittiest lawyer has enough of a case to legitimately threaten litigation, knowing that most people don’t know the laws, can’t afford a lawyer, and probably can’t afford the time/money to go to any type of court to fight them.
It’s why you got to plan it out with your family. Make sure that at least one of them knows what’s going on. Make sure you divorce your spouse just before and allow all your assets to go to them. That way your spouse also skips out on inheritance taxes. The only person the debt collector can go after is your parents if they are still alive, or your children, but only if they are over 18. If you have gotten enough of the untraceable asset to your family, they might even be able to hire a lawyer to send a nice and threatening love letter to the debt collectors to kindly tell them to fuck off or they’ll be paying off your debt plus interest back to your family.
Most debt collectors are cowardly scum who don’t want to waste money on litigation.
That is so obviously fraud that even the shittiest of debt collectors will destroy you in civil court. You’d need to leave the property to a friend or family member that could be trusted to liquidate the assets into cash, pay any taxes/fees with the proceeds, and either give cash directly to the spouse (gotta stay small dollar cash amounts or it winds up becoming noticeable by the tax collectors) or set up a trust that could pay the spouse but that is a whole area of tax law that I know nothing about.
Inheritance taxes… unless you’ve got literally millions of dollars in real assets this won’t apply.
Its probably safe to say that a “regular” person won’t have to pay taxes on inherited vehicles, real estate, stocks, etc anywhere in the USA when the estate divides up the deceased’s property. The taxes kick in when you sell, and make a profit on, any of those assets.
I’m cynically inclined to say, every state in the USA has a small claims court that is very easy and cheap for a Debt Collection agency to hire a shitty lawyer full time (hell even a law student or clerk can serve the same purpose and even cheaper) and pretty cheaply to deal with litigation. In a lot of places, if you don’t show up, you automatically forfeit to whoever did show up.