Student Loans After Death: What Happens to Federal, Private and Parent PLUS Loans

By Eric Ridley, attorney, Ridley Law. Updated October 2026.

Do student loans go away when you die? For most families the answer depends on one fact: who lent the money. Student loans after death split into two systems that don’t share rules, a federal one that ends the debt and a private one that leaves it as a claim against whatever the borrower owned. A family that sends the same letter to both kinds of lender will get the wrong result from one of them.

This page sorts the loans first, then walks through what happens to each kind, what a California family has to know about community property, and the tax bill that usually doesn’t arrive. The broader question, whether you answer for any relative’s debts, is on whether you’re responsible for your parents’ debts.

Sort the loans before you write to anyone

Which letter you send depends on which kind of loan you hold, so sort first. A loan made, insured or guaranteed under Title IV of the Higher Education Act is federal: Direct Loans, the older FFEL loans and Perkins loans. A private education loan, as 15 U.S.C. § 1650(a) defines it, is a loan from a private educational lender that isn’t made, insured or guaranteed under Title IV and is issued expressly for postsecondary educational expenses. The paperwork usually tells you which. The statements for a federal loan come from a servicer working for the Department of Education. The statements for a private loan come from the lender itself, and the promissory note names a cosigner if there is one.

Federal student loans are discharged at death

A Direct Loan ends at the borrower’s death, and the family sends proof rather than payments. 34 C.F.R. § 685.212(a)(1) says that if the borrower dies, the Secretary discharges the obligation of the borrower and any endorser to make further payments. The Secretary acts on an original or certified copy of the death certificate, an accurate and complete photocopy of one, a scanned or faxed copy, or verification of the death through an authoritative federal or state electronic database the Secretary has approved. In exceptional circumstances the Secretary can accept other reliable documentation, case by case (§ 685.212(a)(2)).

The older FFEL loans work the same way, and the lender has to pause collection while the family gets the paperwork together. Once a lender receives reliable information that the borrower has died, it has to suspend collection for up to 60 days and ask for the documentation, with up to 60 more days if it needs them. Once it has determined that the borrower died, it may not try to collect from the borrower’s estate or from any endorser, and it has to return payments received from the estate or paid on the borrower’s behalf after the date of death (34 C.F.R. § 682.402(b)). A Perkins loan is discharged by the school, which must discharge the unpaid balance including interest (34 C.F.R. § 674.61(a)).

If a payment kept going out after the death, from an auto-debit on a closed account or from a family member who didn’t know, § 685.212(g)(1) has the Secretary return it, and for a discharge based on death the money goes to the borrower’s estate. That is estate property. The executor should ask for it in the same letter that sends the death certificate.

Parent PLUS loans: either death ends the debt

A Parent PLUS loan is the parent’s debt, not the student’s, and either death ends it. Under § 685.212(a)(1), if the borrower dies, or the student on whose behalf a parent borrowed a Direct PLUS Loan dies, the obligation is discharged. The FFEL rule says the same in nearly the same words (34 C.F.R. § 682.402(b)(1)). A mother who loses a son in college doesn’t keep paying the loan she took out for him, and a father who dies leaves his daughter with no obligation on the loan he took out for her.

A few situations can leave a federal balance behind, so check them before assuming everything is gone. A consolidation loan that repaid a PLUS loan taken for a student who died is discharged only as to the part attributable to that PLUS loan, measured at the date of the student’s death (§ 685.212(a)(3)). And if two parents were co-makers on an FFEL PLUS loan and only one dies, the other remains obligated to repay it unless the survivor qualifies for a discharge of their own (34 C.F.R. § 682.402(a)(3)). That is a legacy problem, but FFEL loans are still around. Married borrowers who consolidated together before July 1, 2006 hold a joint consolidation loan. When one spouse dies, only the part of the balance attributable to the dead spouse’s own loans is discharged (34 C.F.R. §§ 685.220(l)(3) and 682.402(a)(2)). The survivor owes the rest. That is the federal rule most likely to leave a surviving spouse with a balance.

Private student loans after death: the contract and the estate

A private student loan is where the family has real work to do, because no federal rule discharges it at death. Whether the loan ends depends on the promissory note and the lender’s policy, so the first thing to read is the note’s default and death clauses. If the note has no discharge, the lender is a creditor of the estate. It files a claim in the probate, or against a revocable trust if there is no probate, and its claim is a general debt that is paid last in the order set by Prob. Code, § 11420. The deadlines are the same as for any other creditor: a claim within four months after letters or 60 days after notice, whichever is later (Prob. Code, § 9100), and an outer limit of one year after death (Code Civ. Proc., § 366.2) that late notice doesn’t extend and a timely claim pauses (Prob. Code, § 9352). The deadlines are set out with a worked example in credit card debt after death in California.

A living trust doesn’t shield its assets from this lender. A private lender can reach the assets of a deceased person’s revocable living trust if the probate estate can’t pay, because Prob. Code, § 19001 makes the trust property that was subject to revocation at death subject to the claims of creditors of the probate estate to the extent the probate estate is inadequate. The mechanics are in creditor claims against a trust. A lender that never got notice can also chase a distributee in some cases (Prob. Code, § 9392), which is why a trustee or executor should send notices before distributing.

The cosigner

If a parent cosigned the private loan, federal law may release the parent after the student’s death. Federal law added a rule for the cosigner of a private education loan. Under 15 U.S.C. § 1650(g)(2), a holder of a private education loan that is notified of the death of the student obligor has to release any cosigner within a reasonable timeframe, and has to notify the cosigner when it does. Subsection (g)(1) adds that a lender can’t declare a default or accelerate the debt against the student on the sole basis of a cosigner’s death or bankruptcy.

Whether a parent is released depends on the date of the loan. The 2018 amendment applies only to private education loan agreements entered into on or after the date 180 days after May 24, 2018, which is November 20, 2018. It speaks of the death of the student obligor, so a loan a parent borrowed in the parent’s own name for a child isn’t clearly covered, and neither is a cosigner who dies. “Within a reasonable timeframe” is not a number of days. A cosigner on a covered loan should send the death certificate and a written release request and treat the loan as live until the release arrives in writing. A cosigner on an older loan, or on a loan where the parent was the primary borrower, stays on the note unless the note or the lender’s own policy says otherwise.

On invented numbers, a young woman dies at 29 owing $38,000 in federal Direct Loans and $22,000 on a private loan her father cosigned in 2021. The federal balance is discharged. The father is released from the private loan within a reasonable time after the lender is notified, because the loan postdates November 20, 2018. The lender still has a $22,000 claim against her estate, which is paid last and may get nothing. If the same private loan had been signed in 2015, her father would still owe it unless the lender’s own policy released him.

A student who borrows privately can plan for this ahead of time. The same subsection requires a lender that extends a private education loan to offer the student borrower an option to designate someone with legal authority to act for the borrower on the loan after death (15 U.S.C. § 1650(g)(2)(C)). It carries the same 2018 effective-date limit. A student borrower with a newer private loan should ask for that option.

When the borrower was married in California

For a surviving spouse, the question is how much of the couple’s property a private lender can reach. Federal discharges leave a surviving spouse nothing to pay, apart from the joint consolidation share above. Private loans are where the marriage matters. Under Fam. Code, § 910, the community estate is liable for a debt either spouse incurred before or during marriage, whichever spouse signed, so a private loan taken before the wedding is still a debt the community can answer for. At death, Prob. Code, § 13550 makes the survivor personally liable for the deceased spouse’s debts up to the pool defined in § 13551: the survivor’s own non-exempt half of the community and quasi-community property not administered in the estate, plus the decedent’s community half and separate property that pass to the survivor without administration, less liens. The survivor’s separate property isn’t in that pool (Fam. Code, § 913).

A surviving spouse who wants to avoid personal liability has one route and one trap. Formal administration of both halves of the community and the decedent’s separate property removes the personal liability (Prob. Code, § 13553), and a surviving spouse’s written acknowledgment of the debt defeats the protection a timely probate would have given (Prob. Code, § 13552). The full treatment, with a worked example, is in credit card debt after death in California. A spouse who is deciding whether to answer a private lender’s letters should read it first. For where a surviving spouse stands when a living trust holds the assets, see surviving spouse rights in trust administration.

The tax bill that usually doesn’t arrive

A discharged loan is normally income to the borrower. Discharges on account of death are the exception, so for most families there is no tax to pay. 26 U.S.C. § 108(f)(5) excludes from gross income an amount that would otherwise be includible because of the discharge of a student loan, or a private education loan, if the loan was discharged under the Higher Education Act’s death-and-disability provisions or otherwise on account of the death or total and permanent disability of the student. The exclusion that applied to discharges after December 31, 2017 and before January 1, 2026 was due to expire. Pub. L. 119-21, § 70119, July 4, 2025, rewrote paragraph (5) and made the exclusion apply to discharges after December 31, 2025, with no end date, and the Franchise Tax Board’s summary of the 2025 federal law calls it permanent.

To keep the exclusion, a family has to put a Social Security number on the return. The new version adds one condition: the exclusion doesn’t apply for a taxable year unless the taxpayer includes a Social Security number on the return. The exclusion requires the taxpayer’s Social Security number on the return for the year of the discharge. The statute doesn’t say which return reports a discharge that lands after the death, so ask a preparer; see who files a deceased person’s final tax return. A servicer may still send a Form 1099-C. Keep it with the return’s records.

The wording leaves a gap that matters if a parent was the borrower. The exclusion speaks of the death of the student. A federal or private loan discharged because the student died is squarely inside it. A Parent PLUS loan discharged because the parent died fits less cleanly. The statute’s first clause covers discharges under the Higher Education Act’s death provisions and their Direct Loan counterparts, and whether it reaches a parent borrower’s death isn’t spelled out. A private parent loan forgiven when the parent dies isn’t spelled out either. If you’re in that spot, take any Form 1099-C to a tax preparer before filing.

California treats the discharge the same way. Rev. & Tax. Code, § 17144.8 applies the federal death-and-disability exclusion for discharges after December 31, 2018, and the FTB’s summary of the 2025 law says California conforms to the exclusion for discharges after December 31, 2025, but not to the Social Security number condition. Some servicer web pages still say a state may treat the discharge as state income. For California, the statute says otherwise.

What the executor or family does first

1. Sort the loans

   Use the statements and the promissory notes.

2. Send the death certificate to every federal servicer

   Ask in writing for confirmation of the discharge, and for the return of any payment made after the date of death to the estate.

3. Handle each private loan as an estate debt

   Route the lender to the executor, notice it for the claim period, and pay it only in the order the statute sets.

4. Ask for the cosigner release

   On a loan agreed to on or after November 20, 2018, the cosigner sends the death certificate and a written request, and keeps the lender’s written release.

5. Keep the tax paperwork

   File the final return with the decedent’s Social Security number and hold the Form 1099-C with it.

If the family is also holding a card balance or a car loan, the rules are different for each: see what happens to a car loan after a death. For the first weeks generally, what to do when someone dies in California sets the order. When the borrower left a probate estate, the executor’s duties are in California estate executor duties.

Frequently asked questions

Does student loan debt die with you?

Federal student loans do. Under 34 C.F.R. § 685.212(a)(1), the Secretary discharges a Direct Loan when the borrower dies, and FFEL and Perkins loans are discharged on death too. Private student loans don’t die with the borrower. The lender can file a claim against the estate, and the estate pays it last if there is anything left.

Do my parents have to pay my student loans if I die?

Not for federal loans, which are discharged. For a private loan your parent cosigned, federal law requires the lender to release the cosigner after your death if the loan was agreed on or after November 20, 2018 (15 U.S.C. § 1650(g)(2)). On an older private loan, or a loan your parent took as the borrower, the parent can still owe it.

What happens to a Parent PLUS loan if the parent dies or the student dies?

It is discharged either way. Under 34 C.F.R. § 685.212(a)(1), if the borrower dies, or the student for whom a parent borrowed a Direct PLUS Loan dies, the Secretary discharges the obligation. For a consolidation loan that repaid a PLUS loan, only the part attributable to the PLUS loan is discharged when the student dies.

Do I owe taxes on student loans discharged because of death?

Not when the student died. 26 U.S.C. § 108(f)(5) excludes the discharge of a student loan or private education loan on account of the student’s death, and Pub. L. 119-21 made that exclusion apply to discharges after December 31, 2025 with no end date. The Social Security number has to appear on the return. California applies the exclusion too (Rev. & Tax. Code, § 17144.8). A parent’s death isn’t spelled out; ask a preparer.

What proof do I send the loan servicer?

For a Direct Loan, an original or certified copy of the death certificate, an accurate and complete photocopy of one, a scanned or faxed copy, or database verification the Secretary has approved (34 C.F.R. § 685.212(a)(1)). In exceptional circumstances the Secretary can accept other reliable documentation, case by case. Send it in writing and keep proof of delivery.

Can a lender collect a student loan from the estate?

A federal lender can’t, once death is confirmed on an FFEL loan (34 C.F.R. § 682.402(b)(4)), and the other federal loans are discharged. A private lender can, as a creditor. It must file a claim within four months after letters or 60 days after notice, whichever is later (Prob. Code, § 9100), and its claim is a general debt paid after the higher-ranking classes.

Is a surviving spouse responsible for the other spouse’s student loans in California?

Not for federal loans, other than a pre-2006 joint consolidation loan, where the survivor owes the portion attributable to their own loans. For a private loan, a surviving spouse can be liable up to the cap in Prob. Code, § 13551, which counts the survivor’s own community half. Administering the community and the decedent’s separate property in probate removes that personal liability (Prob. Code, § 13553).

What happens to payments made after the borrower died?

For a discharge based on death, the Secretary returns payments received after the eligibility date to the borrower’s estate (34 C.F.R. § 685.212(g)(1)). An FFEL lender must return payments received from the estate or paid on the borrower’s behalf after the date of death (34 C.F.R. § 682.402(b)(5)). The executor should request the refund in writing.