Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Georgia

Maybe (see below). I am sorry for your loss.

If you cosigned a bill, or otherwise authorized same, you may be liable. As to other bills that are solely hers, the estate is liable and you are not, so if there is no estate, you have no problem.

You will likely get contacted by many creditors. It can be helpful in these cases to spend a small amount and have a lawyer write the creditors so they leave you alone. The cost of this is very minimal. Feel free to call me with questions at 404-768-3509.

Generally, you are not directly liable unless you (a) agreed to be personally responsible or (b) were a joint borrower.

However, I do not know what kinds of debts these are for. You might be directly liable for things like necessaries (i.e., medical bills).

Even if you are not personally liable for your wife's debts, her estate is liable. The question becomes what assets did your wife own, how were the assets titled and what kind of probate assets are there, if any?

It may be that if things were jointly held and if your wife had no probate assets, then there will be no need to probate an estate. In such case, you need a "drop dead" type of letter to the creditors to advise that your wife died, that she has no probate assets and that you are not going to probate an estate. You can do this on your own or you can hire an attorney as suggested by Attorney Ashman.

Even if your wife had probate assets, then you still may not be liable. In such case, you should get an attorney to assist with the probate of your wife's estate to make sure that the creditors are properly notified. Claims must be paid in order of priority if there are insufficient probate assets. After paying for administrative expenses (like the spousal allowance) and other costs there might be nothing left for creditors.

Even though you say your wife had "no estate" I would encourage you to still have matters reviewed by an attorney.