Greetings Dopers! Long time lurker, first time poster here 
I recently graduated from a rather expensive private 4 year university. My education was financed thru student loans… alot of them. Now I’m embarking on my career, and my guy and I have been discussing marriage within the next year or so. The thing that has me most worried about tying the knot is the huge debt I have hanging over my head from my student loans. Is there any legal way to shield my future hubby from my student loan obligations should anything unfortunate happen to me? I’m a resident of Fla, if that has any impact on the answer.
I don’t think anyone is responsible for another persons debt, whether married or not. When you die any money or valuables in your name have to go towards paying the debt even if you leave it to someone else.
Putting everything in his name (no joint bank accts.) is a way around this. But you’ve got to really trust him.
IANAL etc. and I don’t know anything about Florida law, but your assertion is incorrect, at least in some states. In Wisconsin for example, debts incurred during the course of a marriage are considered debts in furtherance of the marriage and both spouses are equally responsible for paying them. Obviously this wouldn’t apply in this case since the debts were incurred prior to marriage.
To the OP, I would suggest before getting married that you and your intended sit down with a lawyer for a couple of hours and discuss the situation. You’re not going to get the sort of expert advice you need on a message board.
Well, that’s pretty shitty. I could understand if a partner co-signed on a loan or credit application. But what about the cases where one partner is dishonest, and doesn’t mention building credit problems to their partner, while married?
IANAL etc. either, but I have a hard time believing Otto’s statement about Wisconsin law is correct. If my wife gets a high limit credit card in her name only and goes on a Las Vegas gambling binge and loses a $100,000 and then gets hit by a train, I sure hope the law doesn’t say that I’m responsible for paying for it.
IADNAL but I know of at least one person who was been held responsible for her husband’s debts after they had divorced and he had died (debts I believe were incurred during marriage).
I know of another person who considers her husband pretty profligate with his money and doesn’t want to get hit with his debts. Her solution is to build a chinese wall between their finances - separate bank accounts, separate credit cards, separate financial obligations and separate tax returns. This may just be to keep the marriage running smoothly, but I think it’s also for legal reasons.
Sorry, xray, but I’m pretty sure Wisconsin law is NOT unique in that respect. Doubtless someone more knowledgeable in this area will come by soon, but I’m rather certain that debts racked up by one spouse are the responsibility of the couple thruout this nation, with only some exceptions.
http://www.povertylaw.org/legalresearch/hotline/faqs/florida/flclientfaq/c13fl.htm
QUESTION #13: My spouse died recently. All of our property was jointly owned. I am receiving medical bills with charges I did not authorize. Am I required to pay these bills?
In most states, surviving spouses can be held responsible for the medical bills of the deceased spouse if the bills were for necessary treatment.
In Florida however, husbands are not responsible for their wives’ debts, and wives are not responsible for their husband’s debts and this includes necessary medical treatment. If the deceased spouse had money left in his or her name alone, then that money must be used to pay debts. If all assets are held jointly, then the surviving spouse gets the assets and does not have to pay the deceased spouse’s debts
However I don’t know if that applies to student loans or if it only applies to retirees and whatnot.
Well, it sucks to be you and marry someone who’s dishonest, doesn’t it? It really sucked to be my brother and spend the first two years of his first marriage paying off his wife’s previous debt only to have her max out her credit cards (her name only) again for a trip to Africa, get nearly killed in a jeep accident and run up ungodly medical bills, and then file for divorce. He was held responsible for half the credit cards, but I don’t really know about the medical bills. Between the legal fees for the divorce, her student loans and credit cards, and his own student loans, his financial situation was incredibly bleak for a long time.
Again, I’m not sure about this, but I think this only applies when (like the case above) the couple has jointly owned bank accounts, houses, etc. or if the surviving spouse is left the money, house, etc.
CrazyCatLady, divorce is a whole different story.
Wis stat 766.55(1):
Wis stat 766.55(2)(b)
Wis stat 766.55(2)©1:
So were the OP to live in Wisconsin, her spouse would not be responsible for the student loan debt incurred prior to the marriage date and should the OP die owing pre-marital debt only her indiviual non-marital property and her share of any marital property could be encumbered by the creditor to satisfy the debt. If your hypothetical wife got herself a credit card, maxed it out and died, you’re on the hook for it to the extent that your property is marital. Next time you get a credit card app in the mail, take a look at the back of it. There’s a paragraph specifically designed for Wisconsin residents because of our marital property law.
Actually Wisconsin law is unique in this area, as Wisconsin is the only state to date to have adopted the Uniform Marital Property Act, or UMPA (which makes our law the Wisconsin Uniform Marital Property Act, or WUMPA). Other aspects may be duplicated in other states but WUMPA itself is unique.
Link to searchable WI statutes, the chapter is 766.
Note to self: Don’t move to Wisconsin.
Otto is absolutely correct in this regard, among others. Even if I was familiar with Florida law, I could not give you the competent legal advice and common local solutions to your problem that a lawyer from your area will know. An hour-long consultation should be inexpensive (or free, in some cases).
x-ray vision has this right, too. The question in the OP is a bit broad. From what do you want to protect your potential husband? Incurring your existing debt on divorce? On your death? Ruining his credit? All these questions have specific legal answers and a local lawyer will know the best answers.
Otto is absolutely correct in this regard, among others. Even if I was familiar with Florida law, I could not give you the competent legal advice and common local solutions to your problem that a lawyer from your area will know. An hour-long consultation should be inexpensive (or free, in some cases).
x-ray vision has this right, too. The question in the OP is a bit broad. From what do you want to protect your potential husband? Incurring your existing debt on divorce? On your death? Ruining his credit? All these questions have specific legal answers and a local lawyer will know the best answers.
A recent Newsweek had a “My Turn” editorial that talked about this.
Carol R. Joynt, “My Turn” Newsweek, Jan 24, 2005
Link to article: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6830714/site/newsweek/
Standard disclaimer, but this is what I’ve always understood: if you are someone’s heir you inherit everything, including debt. Of course, every state has slightly different laws, and there may be exceptions (apparently including medical expenses). Another difference is that this is debt you incured before marriage, whereas in Joynt’s case, her husband ran up most of the debt during marriage. This may make a difference - the only way to really know is to talk to a lawyer who specializes in this area.
The only other thing I can add is that I once worked on a computer system intended to help a large student-loan company collect on delinquent accounts. One of the actions that the collections officer could do was mark the delinquent person as deceased. They were required to collect paperwork (death certificate, etc) but in the end, the person was purged out of the collections system. I really don’t know what happened after that, though. I always assumed that the debt was just written off and recovered through insurance policies.
If you’re worried about dying any time soon take out a term life insurance policy for the amount of your debt. You can reduce it every year as the principle is paid down. A $100,000 policy for a young person in good health is pretty cheap, in the $20-30 a month range.
If it’s divorce down the road that is your concern a pre-nup might be a good way to go.
Note to self: Remember to put credit reasons at the end of my list of “Reasons not to get married”.
Damn, this list is getting huge. 
I have received, in the past, legal notices that I was being taken to court for the purpose of garnishing my wages to satisfy delinquent student loans. In each instance, the legal notice (summons?) was addressed (in the document, not on the envelope) to “Mr. Phase42 and his wife, Mrs. Phase42”. That was followed by notice that both my, and my alleged wife’s wages were fair game for garnishment.
Thing is, I’ve never been married, and I was a bit surprised to learn that a future spouse could be liable for my student loan debt incurred long before the marriage. This could be a peculiarity in Washington state laws, or I may have misinterpreted the legal notices. But it has been one more reason to avoid marriage
This thread caused me to dig out a story entitled “The Strange Wedding of Widow Ward”, contained in “Mischief in the Mountains”, a book of old Vermont weirdness.
The story, set in 1789, describes the legal situation of the day, where a man who married a debtor’s widow becomes lable for the decedent’s debts. The theory, as explained in the story, is that the decedent’s estate owned all marital property, including the widow’s clothing. By marrying the widow while she wore clothing belonging to the estate, you were “meddling” with the estate, and hence assumed the estate’s debts. Even if the groom were to give the widow new clothes for the wedding, these would be considered a gift to the estate, and the legal situation would be unchanged.
In the story, Moses Joy, a well-to-do-man madly in love with the Widow Ward, couldn’t marry her without becoming instantly bankrupt, as the creditors of the late William Ward were just waiting to swoop down on anyone incautious enough to actually marry the widow.
After Joy’s lawyer explains the legal theory, Joy decides on a course of action, whereby he would marry the widow while she is not wearing ANY clothes. Theoretically, then, he would not be meddling with any part of the estate, and would not assume debts.
I have since read that this legal theory and the solution to it are what we might call a “rural legend”, but it makes for a good story.
Oh, how did they pull it off in 1789? Well, the couple were married at a local tavern, and the bride stood in a closet, extending her arm though a hole in the door (a heart-shaped hole, of course!), to grasp the arm of the groom for the ceremony.
I doubt that I would want to stake my future financial survival on such a novel interpretation of the law. One assumes that Joy rented the tavern for the ceremony. A judge could decide that the the closet was a form of clothing and the rental thereof a de facto gift the estate, landing Joy in a world of financial hurt.
“Michief in the Mountains” has a number of other interesting stories, including a newspaper hoax from 1889 which described how the residents of a small mountain settlement, when food was scarce, would freeze their elderly and infirm for the winter, thawing them out and reanimating them in the spring…