You write to creditors you know, not to ones you do not

Debts that existed on the date of death belong on the liabilities side. You write to the creditors you know: a utility company, an insurer with an outstanding premium, the Belastingdienst, or a person for whom you can point to an agreement or a transfer. One line per creditor, or per claim if the documents split them. Ask in writing which amount was outstanding on the date of death. That amount is the debt on the date of death. What is invoiced afterwards for a period after the death belongs in the course of events. You do not mix an annual statement into one figure without reading the specification and keeping it as the source.

A debt you suspect but cannot point to gets no amount. It gets a task: ask this other party, with a date and status open. A task is not a liability item with a round figure. The family may think a loan from a brother or sister is still outstanding. Then you look for the transfers and any agreement. If you find them, it becomes a debt or a receivable with that document as the source. If you do not find them, the task stays and the field stays empty. A family story without a payment is context with the task, not a balance you fill in.

With a utility company you ask for the balance as at the date of death and the position of the advances. An advance that had already been paid is not an extra debt. An advance paid in excess can be a receivable, but only if the statement says so. Until the statement is there, you book nothing. Put the customer number and the address with the task. The mortgage and a personal loan keep their own lines. You do not bundle all debts into one residual item, because then the source for each creditor disappears. Each letter that comes back you link to the line the question belonged to, with the date it was received.

You note a loan from a brother or sister with the names, the document and the balance on the date of death. Interest after that you book only if the agreement names that interest and the calculation sits with the document, or if the creditor sends a specification. You do not work out interest from memory. Payments after the death lower the debt and the account from which payment was made. Record both sides. If it is unclear whether a transfer was a loan or a gift, that remains a question. The amount may stand as a fact in the note, without turning it into a debt.

A list of debts is not a valuation and not tax advice. Ervazo invents no creditor and fills in no outstanding amount. The source of a debt is the creditor, in a specification or an invoice as at the date of death. The Belastingdienst is the source for a tax debt, not an estimate of what an assessment will later be. Until the letter is there, the line remains a task. A task without a figure should stay visible, so that nobody later thinks the liabilities side was already complete. The bank is the source if the debt is a loan with the bank, with a specification of its own.