No. Student debt that you bring into a marriage remains your debt. Let's say you have $30,000 in federal student loans and $40,000 in private student loans when you get married. Your spouse might help pay down your debt, but you're the only one legally responsible.
Federal student loans are not passed on to anyone in your family or even your estate. If you die, your federal student debt is instead fully forgiven and is no longer owned or owed by anyone. Someone will need to provide proof of death to the student loan servicer managing the debt to get it discharged after death.
Marriage won't automatically merge you and your partner's credit histories. Thus, marrying someone with student loan debt can't hurt your credit score. If the loan is co-signed, however, you share the repayment responsibility and any failure to make installments on time can hurt your credit score.
Legally, any student loan debt you incurred before getting married is considered separate property and remains so after the divorce (unless a prenup states otherwise). So if you borrowed $70,000 to attend law school before marrying your spouse, that debt is yours.
If you have federal student loans and pass away, your family can apply for loan discharge due to death and have the remaining balance forgiven. Federal loan discharge for borrowers applies if you have any of the following federal student loans: Direct subsidized loans.
Any outstanding balance on your loan will be forgiven if you haven't repaid your loan in full after 20 years or 25 years, depending on when you received your first loans. You may have to pay income tax on any amount that is forgiven.
What happens to my loans if I die? If you die, then your federal student loans will be discharged after the required proof of death is submitted.
The laws and regulations for income-driven repayment (IDR) plans require payments to be calculated based on a combined household income, including your spouse's income if you are married.
Student loans don't go away after seven years. There is no program for loan forgiveness or cancellation after seven years. But if you recently checked your credit report and are wondering, "why did my student loans disappear?" The answer is that you have defaulted student loans.
The answer is yes. Your student loan creditors can garnish your spouse's wages to recover the amount of your defaulted student loan. You don't mention whether the loan was incurred before or after marriage.
What happens to federal student loans when you die? When you die, your federal student loans will be discharged. If your parent took out a parent PLUS loan and they die, or if you die, that loan will be discharged as well. This means that you won't be responsible for those loans when a parent dies.
All federal student loans are discharged upon the borrower's passing. For Federal Parent PLUS loans, the debt is also forgiven upon the death of the student for whom the loan was borrowed.
Your eligibility for IBR is effectively a debt-to-income test – there is no official income limit. If your loan payments would be lower under IBR than if you paid off your loan in fixed payments over 10 years, you can enroll. If your income later increases, you are not disqualified to have your debt forgiven under IBR.
All students who are married are considered independent of their parents regardless of age. Thus, a couples' income and the assets of a spouse will affect a student's financial aid. However, income and assets from the couple's parents won't.
If you have defaulted on federal student loans, the government can take life insurance payments or settlements made directly to you but there are a few stipulations in place. In order for this to occur, you must be the beneficiary of the life insurance policy and the individual must already be deceased.
There's a chance that your student loan could be written off if a certain period of time passes since you were first due to repay it. As we've detailed above, this period varies greatly depending on the type of plan. It could be either when you're 65 years old or anywhere between a duration of 25 years or 30 years.
For students who took out loans before the 2006/07 academic year, your student loan will be written off once you turn 65. For those who took them out between the 2006/07 and 2011/12 academic years, the cut off is 25 years after the April your repayments started.
Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF)
If you work full-time for a government or not-for-profit organization, you may qualify for forgiveness of the entire remaining balance of your Direct Loans after you've made 120 qualifying payments—that is, 10 years of payments.
When you fall behind on payments, there's no property for the lender to take. The bank has to sue you and get an order from a judge before taking any of your property. Student loans are unsecured loans. As a result, student loans can't take your house if you make your payments on time.
The FAFSA looks at the total family finances as well as the previous tax year's income, which means that inheritance or gifted money, even to a parent, can affect the amount of financial aid a student is entitled to receive.
Student loans can't take your retirement payments from a 401k or pension. However, if you default on federal student loans, the government can garnish 15% of your Social Security benefits. You can stop the garnishment from happening by getting out of default, either with loan rehabilitation or consolidation.
In a nutshell: In most cases, spouses are not responsible for paying off the debt of a deceased person. Instead, the deceased's estate pays off any debt owed, including credit card debt. However, you may be responsible if you cosigned or were a joint account holder.
In most cases, an individual's debt isn't inherited by their spouse or family members. Instead, the deceased person's estate will typically settle their outstanding debts. In other words, the assets they held at the time of their death will go toward paying off what they owed when they passed.