Forgiving or otherwise reducing Maw's debts? As a followup to this question , I've arrived at an effective financial mechanism to help me provide for Maw, however while evaluating her overall financial health I learned that she's acquired alarming (given her previous state of relatively low income) debts. Specifically, at 67 years of age she's never earned more than $18K, but somehow has managed to convince three lenders to front her some $20K in debt. I believe most of this is unsecured, but I haven't seen all the paperwork yet and as a further indication of Maw's lack of financial knowledge she has no idea herself. My current activities have been focused on migrating higher interest rate debt into lower rate facilities, but the final outcome is unsatisfactory even if I can get all of her debts into a secured vehicle.