OK, we admit that one of us -- long ago when young, single and frivolous -- went off the deep end using credit cards.

The catalyst was a magazine article suggesting that you needn't worry about debt. Reason: When you die, your debts die with you. But do your debts really die with you?

Not necessarily, says Harry Margolis, Boston-based elder law attorney and president of Elderlawanswers.com. Your debts, he explains, die with you only if you leave no assets.

Unfortunately, your debts may live on to haunt your heirs if you do also happen to leave them property or anything else of value.

Margolis concedes that the ability of your creditors to claim a jointly-owned home after you die may be cloudy.

But if you leave probated property, your heirs need to watch out. Probated property clearly is subject to a creditor's claim for the debt.

There is some relief. Most states cut off claims against estates, typically by setting a statute of limitations, he says.

So if a creditor doesn't claim the debt from the estate within a stipulated time frame, your heirs might get out of paying your debt after all -- even if you did leave assets.

John McCabe, legal counsel for the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws, in Chicago, said at least 17 states -- including Pennsylvania -- had adopted his organization's Uniform Probate Code.

Under that code, creditors may claim payment for a debt in an estate one year from the date of probate.

If you happen to inherit assets and debt, he noted, you may be dependent on an executor or administrator to notify creditors. But it behooves you to pay attention. If the executor or administrator fails to give proper notice, the statute of limitations on the debt may be extended.

So it actually may be tougher to get out of paying it.

"The burden is on the creditor once they get notice," McCabe said.

However, it's possible that even if a creditor lets the debt slide, the victory by your heirs could come back to bite them.

It did with one of Margolis' clients.

The client had inherited both credit card debt and assets, and escaped the creditor's claims for one year after the date of probate -- Massachusetts' statute of limitations, according to Margolis. Rather than pay the debt off, the client opted to wait and see if the creditor staked a claim.

The credit card issuer wrote the debt off.

But leave it to the IRS to spoil a party! It ruled that the "release of debt" actually was taxable income to the heirs.

"If they had paid off the debt, they would have gotten nothing," Margolis said. By letting the debt slide, they wound up getting something, but had to pay income tax on it.

Are banks really going after estates to collect their debts?

Exactly how tough banks are varies, said Richard Curtin, president of the American Alliance of Creditor Attorneys, Columbus, Ohio.

The bigger and more sophisticated banks are more apt to go after debts in an estate because it's a bigger problem. "They have more people die every month."

But Don Coker, banking and economic consultant in Mobile, Ala., says he has seen many creditors write off debts accumulated by persons who have died.

"A very small percentage of estates go through probate," Coker explained.

"People set their affairs up so they have joint ownership. Assets pass to somebody else. Debts are just left there by themselves."

Often, he says, a credit card company does not even know about a cardholder's death. The debt just goes into collections. "If the credit card company does eventually find out a person has died, there's nothing there to pay for it."

Coker cited one case for which he is giving expert testimony. A couple had $70,000 worth of credit card debt and the husband passed away, leaving his spouse a $700 monthly income.

"There's no possible way she can deal with that," he said. "There are banks, credit grantors and department stores going after her. What's going to happen is they're going to have to write this off."

But Coker placed the blame squarely on the credit issuers. "They should not have granted so much credit to somebody," he said. "She and her husband were both disabled."