Login | September 08, 2026
Debts and Death
Motley Fool
Published: September 8, 2026
Q. What happens to my debts after I die? -- L.T., Murfreesboro, Tennessee
A. When people die, their debts are generally paid from their estate, which includes assets such as financial accounts, a home and other property. Typically, a named executor or a probate court administrator manages the estate in accordance with probate rules.
If the estate can't cover your debt, it might go unpaid. Your survivors are generally not on the hook to pay off your debts unless they co-signed a loan or are a joint owner of a credit card account. (Authorized users of a card are not joint owners and are not responsible for debts.) Some states, such as community property states, do require a surviving spouse to repay certain debts. With mortgages, any co-borrower will be expected to keep making payments, and whoever inherits the property may have to pay -- or sell.
It's worth looking into the terms of your various debts to know which rules apply. Note that the IRS will likely bill heirs of the estate for any taxes due.
Q. Can I buy shares of stock directly from companies instead of through a brokerage? -- S.H., Providence, Rhode Island
A. With many companies, you can. Most folks own stocks in brokerage accounts and via mutual funds or exchange-traded funds (ETF). But you may also be able to buy shares directly from companies that offer a Dividend Reinvestment Plan (sometimes referred to as a "DRIP"), Direct Stock Purchase Plan (DSPP) or similar programs. Such plans generally charge low or no fees, and they often allow you to reinvest dividends in additional shares or fractions of shares (though reinvested shares can require extra record-keeping).
Fool's School
Fund Investing Basics
Many of us (perhaps most) don't have the time, energy or skills to invest in individual stocks. That's not a problem, though, because we can invest in stock funds instead. (There are funds that focus on bonds and other investments, as well.)
You probably know about mutual funds, which pool the money of many investors and are managed for them by professionals. A newer type of fund is the exchange-traded fund (ETF), which is very much like a regular mutual fund but trades like a stock. Both types encompass passively managed funds (like index funds) and actively managed funds.
If you're going to invest in one or more funds, don't just choose those with the biggest recent gains. To some degree, a terrific return isn't the result of genius fund managers, but of good luck -- at least over the short term. A huge return in one year may well be followed by a lackluster return the next. Also, be careful with big multiyear returns; they're sometimes based on one unusually strong year, with the rest of the years less impressive.
Focus on fees, too. You can look up funds at sites such as Morningstar.com, where you'll find each fund's "expense ratio" (annual fee) listed. A ratio of 1.0% will cost you $10 annually for every $1,000 you have invested. Many good index funds have expense ratios of 0.05% or lower, costing you $0.50 or less for every $1,000 in the fund.
Fees are part of the reason most stock mutual funds fail to outperform either the market average or their benchmark index. According to S&P Global, 90% of all U.S. large-cap stock mutual funds underperformed the S&P 500 index over the 15 years through December 2025.
Given the underperformance of many mutual funds, consider just sticking with low-fee, broad-market index funds. You might choose one that tracks the S&P 500 index (which includes hundreds of America's biggest companies) or a fund based on a broader index, like one tracking all U.S. stocks or all world stocks.
My Dumbest Investment
"Fail-Proof" -- but It Failed
My most regrettable financial move was taking a colleague's advice and putting most of my money into a cryptocurrency he said was fail-proof. Well, it failed. I was lucky to stay above water with it. -- D.K., online
The Fool responds: Few investments are fail-proof. Even blue-chip companies can fall on hard times and see their stocks drop for an extended period, and some blue-chip companies even end up going out of business.
There are many types of cryptocurrencies, and they can be complicated and hard to understand. Never invest in anything that you don't understand fairly well -- you need to truly appreciate the risks involved, along with the possible rewards.
Cryptocurrencies tend to be volatile and vulnerable to security issues. It's true that plenty of people have made hefty profits with crypto, but many others have not. The California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (DFPI) warns investors: "Exercise caution when dealing with crypto. Consult with trusted advisors, and with state and federal consumer watchdog organizations."
DFPI adds a warning about crypto payments: "Bogus text messages, spam calls, and phishing are just part of the new toolbox of nightmares that scammers have available to them. And crypto -- hard-to-trace, decentralized, anonymized -- is practically custom-made for today's online scammer."
(Do you have a smart or regrettable investment move to share with us? Email it to TMFShare@fool.com.)
Foolish Trivia
Name That Company
I trace my roots back to 1972, when a Michigan couple moved to Los Angeles and launched a bakery with all their savings. In 1978, their son opened a restaurant in Beverly Hills to promote his mom's desserts. Today, with a recent market value of $5 billion, I own and operate 374 eateries in the U.S. and Canada, both under my flagship name and under brands like North Italia and Flower Child. My flagship's menu features more than 250 items. I've been named one of Fortune magazine's "100 Best Companies to Work For" for 13 consecutive years. Who am I?
Last Week's Trivia Answer
I trace my roots back to 1972, when two fellows invested $25,000 each in a new type of business, opening a storage facility in California. They aimed to keep adding locations until demand dried up, but that hasn't happened yet. Today, based in Frisco, Texas, I'm the world's largest owner and operator of self-storage facilities, with 3,500-plus facilities in 40 states serving more than 2 million customers. My market value was recently $58 billion. My roughly 260 million net rentable square feet make me one of America's largest landlords; I've invested in European storage facilities, too. Who am I? (Answer: Public Storage)
The Motley Fool Take
Consider Chevron
Given the world's reliance on energy, you might want to invest in it. If so, consider one of the world's largest energy companies: Chevron (NYSE: CVX). It's diversified, with a global portfolio of assets. It's involved in the entire energy value chain, including exploring for oil and gas; transporting, refining and marketing them; and producing petrochemicals and additives.
Chevron is run conservatively. That shows up on the balance sheet, given its low debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25. And it shows up in the dividend, which has been increased for decades despite the inherent volatility of the energy sector. On top of that, the dividend yield was recently an attractive 3.7%.
The energy sector has always been volatile, and conflict in the Middle East has certainly caused disruption; Chevron is looking into building a pipeline to bypass the Strait of Hormuz. It's also working with Microsoft to power one of its new artificial intelligence (AI) data centers in West Texas with natural gas, bypassing local electric utilities. These are promising new directions for the company, and evidence that it can pivot as needed to keep growing.
For most investors in the energy patch, Chevron is a good choice. (The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Chevron.)
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