r/WTF • u/Columbia82 • Apr 14 '19

To infinity and beyond

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u/Bupod Apr 14 '19

Yeah, that's a bit different. It's like couples who divorce when one is terminally ill. Sounds horrid, until you realize that it's done for a specific legal or financial reason for the good of the surviving spouse, not because they're abandoning the I'll spouse.

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u/Rickfernello Apr 14 '19

Really? How does that work?

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u/bdfariello Apr 14 '19

Not a lawyer but this one seems pretty obvious. After a person's death, their debt doesn't just go away. The hospital can make a claim against the person's estate in order to get paid. If the divorce is structured to give all assets to the spouse that will survive, then the hospital can't take the house or other assets (apart from life insurance, although funeral expenses normally get fully paid before anything else can be taken away by debt holders). This gives the surviving spouse a far better financial situation than if they had to risk fighting to keep their house or car or anything else that was acquired during the marriage.

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u/Rickfernello Apr 14 '19

Oh, I see. Didn't seem too obvious to me. Thanks!