The general rule of thumb is that if your loved one has a lot of debt, and there’s plenty of money to pay it off, the debt will be paid off, according to Tim Gagnon, a professor of accounting at the D’Amore-McKim School of Business at Northeastern University in Boston.

“If a person dies with massive debt but sufficient assets to cover the debt, then the personal representative must liquidate assets to pay the debts before anyone inherits any assets,” Gagnon says.