Can you bequeath a debt in your will?

[Dilbertian]

If you have lent someone money, what happens if you die before it is repaid to you?

I should have said 'her diamond tiara' instead of her house! 😂

Ooh, legal translations I shall leave to the lawyers here for fear of getting terms wrong and because my brain will melt.

I shall content myself with sharing the irrelevancies that "Umquhill" means "deceased; and that the James Tod who put up the East India Co stock as security was an interesting chap who was born in Scotland, married in New York, had his children in London, became an indigo planter in India, and died at Burton Cottage nr Christchurch, Hampshire, previously the home of poet Robert Southey. He was the father of this James Tod:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Tod

I thought Umquhill was an awesome Scottish name!

Suggest it on the Baby Names board?

It could become the new Ballonz!

(Just don't out it by linking back to this thread)

A debt is an asset of the estate. The benefit of the debt can be passed to the beneficiaries of the estate so the estate can be wound up and then the lender will have to pay the beneficiary rather than the deceased. This is true whether the debt is secured against an asset or not.

You can also leave the benefit of loans to a specific beneficiary under your Will.

True, but a dodgy debtor could fuck a vulnerable beneficiary up, could they not?

Best case is for the executors acting in concert to recall the debt or record it expressly if not otherwise recorded. At the same time they may want to pay 10% inheritance tax on it rather than 40%. Just to be safe. Valuation is everything here.

If the person dying is owed money then its an asset to their estate for the Executors to collect.

How it's collected I don't know as private loans are likely to be less formalised. I'm sure there's a process, though. It won't be automatically written off.