I think the decent thing to do would be to take out some term life assurance sufficient to cover your debt and your funeral expenses. Would you really want your parents or brothers/sisters to have to pick up the bill for your funeral if you died unexpectedly? I don't think your relatives could be forced to pay off your debts, but certainly somebody will have to pick up the bill for your funeral unless they refuse and you end up having to put buried in a paupers grave. What happens if they found themselves in a situation of financial hardship themselves and then found they had to pay unexpectedly for somebody else's funeral as well. Or you could take out two smaller life assurance policies - one to cover your debts and one to cover your funeral expenses and then cancel the one for your debts once you've paid them off so that your annual premium outlay would then be less.