<prompt> Human: My husbands father Bob has been battling cancer and recently underwent last minute lifesaving surgery to buy himself some more time. Well, My husband Pete is his medical power of attorney and not sure the legal term chosen person to handle his estate. He flew home to see his dad and discovered that not only is his dad broke which we already knew, but owes about 200,000 to creditors and owes back taxes to the IRS from last year. He has no health insurance, no life insurance that we know of and is divorced. Bob until recently was living with a woman named Jill in her house and she is now claiming common law marriage and rights to his stuff. My sister in law, Nancy, being the older sister says power of attorney defaults to the older sibling in this kind of situation. Weve told her shes full of shit but she is persistent. Anyway, Bob has a storage unit with who-knows-what he has accumulated over the years and Pete must now sort through everything. He wants to be able to give his dad a proper burial when he dies but also rescue family antiques like a civil war gun owned by his ancestor. Bob has said that he wants to be cremated but no more wishes stated before he went into surgery and is now too confused from meds to say. My husband has a shit-storm on his hands with the financial situation and dealing with these people. Please help with any advice you can offer. Thank you!Update: Good news. Bob is doing better. He is off the ventilator and levophed but is still a little confused. He will be soon transfered to a step down unit then discharged after a few days. Now the bad news. Pete went by his house and its a freaking dump. Like Jesses crack house in Breaking Bad kind of dump were his words. There is no floor only subflooring, like plywood. His only bed is a mattress that got rained on when Jill forgot it in the back of her truck. He didnt give further details, just emphasized that it was bad. Bob will need ongoing care when he leaves that Im not sure Jill can provide in that environment. And its certainly not sanitary for someone who just had massive surgery. Pete is going to talk again to the case manager at the hospital and see if they have resources that can help. Thank you all for the good advice and kind words of support. It is much appreciated!Assistant: I know this is not the point of the OPs post, but what happens in the scenario where the estate cant scrounge up the 200K? Does debt get passed on and now the executor is personally liable for the rest of thereby owed?Human: That is one of my fears, that Pete will accidentally sign something making us responsible which would ruin us. We have a baby and have to be very careful with money.  <response>: The number one rule... do NOT pay a cent... a single cent... on any debt of his fathers. Someone might try to guilt or cajole you into making a payment on something. In law... making a payment no matter how small constitutes acknowledgement of a debt and then makes you potentially liable for the balance.As to the POA.. Im not sure you can just hand that off to another person. It is a legal document that has to be notarized and usually specifies a specific person who had the power and is signed by the person to whom the power of attorney applies Bob. If Bob is not of sound mind... Im not even sure he can sign a new POA.If it were me... Id ask for a couple of keep sakes that have high sentimental value and ignore anything of value that should technically get sold off and have the proceeds paid to creditors. Id then keep as far away from the mess as possible... theres a lot of risk getting involved and zero reward for involvement. 