Liz Weston: How your parents’ debt could outlive them

— Are the surviving spouse and live in a community property state or a state that requires surviving spouses to pay debts such as medical bills.

— Were legally responsible for settling the estate and didn’t follow state law.

For example, if you’re the executor of your parent’s estate and distribute money to yourself or other heirs before paying off creditors, the creditors could sue you to get the money back.

SHOULD YOU FEAR ‘FILIAL RESPONSIBILITY’ LAWS?

More than half of the states still have “filial responsibility” laws on the books that technically could require adult children to pay their impoverished parents’ bills, says estate and elder law attorney Letha McDowell of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

These laws are holdovers from a time when debtors prisons existed, says McDowell, who is president of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys. Their use has faded since the 1965 creation of Medicare — the health coverage program for people 65 and over — and Medicaid, the health coverage program for the poor.

Filial responsibility statutes are rarely enforced, although in 2012, a nursing home chain used Pennsylvania’s law to successfully sue a son for his mother’s $93,000 bill. Some legal experts have predicted more such lawsuits as long-term care costs rise, but so far that hasn’t materialized, McDowell says.