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?

  • D61 [any]
    ·
    9 months ago

    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.

    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.

    Most debt collectors are cowardly scum who don't want to waste money on litigation.

    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.