Who is responsible after passing away

This is probably an easy question to answer but I am not very familiar with the law in the situation. If your parents pass away and owe money to many creditor, who is responsible for paying off these bills. Assuming their is no estate, do the next of kin(children) become responsible?

AUG. 27, 2001

DEAR PAULDP:

If your parents have died and there is not enough money in their estate to pay off the outstanding bills, then the estate is essentially bankrupt and the bills will have to go unpaid. If possible, you should inform the creditors by mail that the estate is bankrupt. The companies will probably write off these amounts as bad debts later on.

You can not be held responsible for your parents bills, but if you can afford to pay off some of them over time, then it would be the right thing to do.