This is a common misconception. People don't generally inherit debt from relatives unless an obligation already exists, such as cosigning a loan. Very few kinds of debt can be passed to a third party (even a relative); end-of-life care and funeral expenses are the most common. Not even the IRS can pass tax debt to survivors of the deceased. Some would consider debt that is secured by an asset as being inherited but this really isn't the case. The inheritor always has the option of just letting the asset the debt is secured against be repossessed. So really the debt isn't inherited, the asset is inherited and the secured interest just comes along for the ride.