I always thought that the estate was responsible for all bills of the decedent, including credit cards and medical bills. When my mother died in 1980 I, as executrix of her estate, paid all of her bills out of the estate account before any money could be distributed to her heirs.
When my husband died last year, I did not have an estate account because all of his financial accounts went directly to me but since he had assets at the time of his death, I paid all of his medical bills that were not covered by insurance as well as the credit cards that were in his name. In fact, before some of his financial accounts were transferred to me I had to sign an affidavit that he had no debts at that time.
So I was quite surprised to see numerous posts in Facebook groups from widows who said a surviving spouse does not have to pay for medical bills or charge cards for her deceased husband and a surviving spouse that pays them is stupid.
What that means is whoever posted that misinformation does not know the law. Most likely, someone refused to pay, told a creditor that the estate was insolvent and the creditor never pursued repayment. When my mother died, she owed about $20 on one card and the utility bills. I paid them all. When I called the card company to cancel the card, they told me that I didn’t have to pay it because it was so low.
Some credit card companies actually have insurance coverage for those unpaid bills due to death. When my FIL died with an insolvent estate, he had a sizeable AT&T bill that went unpaid. They asked my wife to sign an affidavit of insolvency for insurance purposes. She did tell them to take a hike because we determined that his one credit card had been hijacked and a large chunk of the balance was related to that. My FIL was not what I would call concerned about his financial condition, because he pretty much did not have one.