When many think of the debts associated with death, they think of the expenses of a funeral.

With the options long gone past a plain pine box and a space at a public cemetery, to all sorts of fancy chariots and caskets, those can be very high. As much as they can be, though, they can be insignificant compared to the mountain of debt that a dead person can leave behind.

And with the debt incurred during the life of the dead coming at a point where the inescapable funeral expenses are already a factor, it can be crushing.

However, it does not have to be that way. As many a life insurance executive has put it, "debt must die with the debtor". This means that adequate life insurance must be in place to adequately cover a person's debts and having some left over to maintain their dependants would not be a bad idea either.

"A dead person's debts will definitely fall to a co-signer or guarantor for a loan and, failing that, will likely fall to the next of kin," said senior accountant Rosemarie. "Of course, if there is collateral for the loan, which is normally the case, then that will be taken into consideration. However, it is hardly likely that the dead person's relatives will want valuable assets such as an expensive motor vehicle or real estate taken by a financial institution to recover debt."

The key is, of course, life insurance, but there is also the matter of who the insurance is on. As Rosemarie said, "there are many times when two persons take out a loan jointly. All the insurance coverage is placed on one person, and then they die and the person who is alive has to assume the responsibility of the entire debt. It can be very crushing."

She also reminded that there are some expenses, notably children, but also maintenance of property, which a dead person will continue to accrue over time. "Educating, housing, clothing and feeding a child to a stage of independence is a very costly affair and it only gets more expensive," Rosemarie said. "Real estate has to be maintained or it will get run down and lose tremendous value or fall into a state where it cannot be converted into cash. These debts continue to accrue long after death."