My husband died in May of 09. Hi mother was living in a nursing home at the time. I had power of attorney because I handled all of her medicaid issues. She had an annuity that she bought years ago to pay for her funeral. I had that annuity set up with the funeral home as an irrevocable will to bury her with it. She passed away in May 2010. She had a sears credit card that she had not paid on for 5 years because all of her SS went to the nursing home. Creditors have continued to sell her debt between many agencies. Now I have a new agency calling me 3 times per day. They sent me a letter stating they should be paid out of her estate. Because the funeral home was sent the check from the annuity, they paid their fees and divided the remaining amount between my husbands brothers which was only $800. Can they continue to contact me about this, and does she really still owe this debt? I have continued to ignore their calls and will continue to until they sell it again.

Your statement that you will continue to ignore the collectors leads me to think that you've already made up your mind as to what you will do BUT -

What State and when was the LAST TIME there was activity on the charge account - either use of the card OR a payment? That determines the statute of limitation.

If the debt is out of date you have no legal responsibility to pay it out of her estate. If it is NOT out of date there is a legal responsibility to pay it from the proceeds of the estate.

Was her estate probated? If so, this debt possibly might have been listed. Again, need to know the dates.

If it IS out of statute notify the collectors that you do NOT want to be contacted in the future and then follow up with written notice that you do NOT want to be contacted.

(On a personal note because the amount split was so small I'm surprised that the brothers didn't agree to forward it to the creditor just to clear the name of their deceased mother.)

We can't say much more without know what State you live in or when exactly was the last payment made to Sears.

I live in Louisiana, the last charge on the card was 2004. The last payment was 4/2006...
And I agree they could have taken care of some of the amount of the debt is 4995.

The Statute in Louisiana on open debts (charge accounts) is 3 years. That means this matter would have had to be placed in suit within three years of April 2006. That deadline has passed and they cannot sue the estate for the debt.

Tell them not to contact you any longer.

Thank you so much.

Sure - they may sell it and the problem may go on but you have the info to give them when they call.

Sorry about your loss (if I haven't already said that). These deaths are difficult enough without all the legal problems.