Their Loans May Be Your Loans
Life Insurance
Student debt has reached record proportions, and that burden is not just shared by students.
Student loan debt is increasingly common. In the U.S., there are 45 million borrowers who collectively owe nearly $1.6 trillion in student loan debt.1 Private student loans account for 8% of this total and play a significant role for students attending higher cost institutions or those who have reached their federal barrowing limits.2 Being approved for loans can be difficult, especially for students, as they often have little credit history and no income.
Term Life Insurance for Every Life Stage
Choose from a selection of Group Term Life insurance coverages for the protection your family needs.
Student loans come in a variety of flavors that can impact students—and their families—for decades.
While parents generally expect their children to repay these loans on their own, cosigners are as legally responsible for the loan as the student. So, missed or late payments can impact the cosigner’s credit score, and the mere presence of the student loan can affect the cosigner’s ability to borrow.
Some lenders discharge cosigned loans if the student dies. However, when such a provision does not exist, Life insurance on the student should be considered to minimize that particular risk.
To avoid being a cosigner for decades, find a loan with a cosigner release provision, ideally based on a specified number of on-time payments. Otherwise, the cosigner can rarely be released. In fact, in recent years over 90% of such requests were rejected.3 Often, the best way to have a cosigner removed is to refinance the loan without a cosigner.
Bottom line: Cosign a loan as a very last resort. Instead, consider all loan options, even parent loans, before cosigning a student loan.
1Quarterly Report on Household Debt and Credit: 2025:Q2. Federal Reserve Bank of New York. www.newyorkfed.org/medialibrary/interactives/householdcredit/data/pdf/HHDC_2025Q2 , August 2025.
2Student Loan Debt Statistics. Lending Tree. www.lendingtree.com/student/student-loan-debt-statistics, September 30, 2025.
3Do You Really Need a Co-Applicant for a Private Student Loan? Student Choice. http://studentchoice.org/do-you-really-need-a-coapplicant-for-a-private-student-loan, July 3, 2025.
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