The quest for identifying the bulk chemical composition of extrasolar planets and robust observational evidence that between 25% and 50% of all Milky Way white dwarfs host currently dynamically-active planetary systems motivate investigations that link their formation and fate. Here I provide a review of our current knowledge of these systems, including an update on the observational and theoretical aspects of the groundbreaking discovery of at least one disintegrating minor planet transiting white dwarf WD 1145+017. I show how this field incorporates several facets of solar system physics and chemistry, and how its interdisciplinary nature requires input from orbital dynamics, stellar evolution, astrochemistry, atmospheric science and surface processes.