Annem yeni öldü ve beni okula göndermek için 90.000 $ borç aldığını ve geri ödemediğini öğrendim. Kancada mıyım?

My mom just died and I found out she borrowed $90,000 to put me through school and never paid it back. Am I on the hook?

Sigrid Forberg and Christy Bieber

Sat, July 25, 2026 at 1:00 PM GMT+3 6 min read

Collectively, Americans owe $1.66 trillion in student loans, according to government data. But behind that staggering number are millions of stories of the real people living under the crushing weight of that debt.

While many people who borrow money for school (either for themselves or someone else) don't always understand exactly what they're taking on, they're at least generally aware they're taking something on. But what if you end up getting surprised with a student loan-sized debt you weren't expecting?

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Let's imagine, for example, that Lisa went to an expensive four-year college. Lisa's mom told her if she covered her first year, she'd pay the rest. So she took out around $30,000 in student loans, thanked her mother and went on with her schooling.

Now, four years after graduating, Lisa's mom just died and while cleaning out her house, she came across some paperwork, revealing her mom actually owes $90,000 for Lisa's education.

Is Lisa going to be responsible for paying this debt and suddenly saddled with a burden worth almost $100,000, or did the debt die with her mom? Here's what you need to know.

Understanding different student loan types

The first step is understanding that there are student loans for parents and student loans for students. This is true of both federal and private student loans.

When Lisa's mom took out her loan, she could have taken it out in her daughter's name, which would require Lisa's knowledge and agreement. (This isn't the case here.) She also might have borrowed money from the Department of Education in the form of Parent PLUS Loans or from a private student lender in the form of parent loans.

Parents who take out these last two types of loans are solely responsible for them. That means Lisa wouldn't be responsible for the debt directly as the loans weren't taken out in her name and Lisa never cosigned for them.

However, this doesn't necessarily mean the debt just disappears. Depending on the kind of loans Lisa's mom took out, the debt could be gone for good, or the lender could try to collect from her mom's estate.

Understanding what creditors could go after

When someone dies with debt, usually the creditors cannot collect from surviving family members unless those family members:

• Cosigned for the loans or were joint borrowers

• Live in a community property state, were married to the borrower and the law says surviving spouses are responsible for certain kinds of debt acquired during the marriage — the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau breaks down how that works

However, creditors can try to collect from the estate or the assets that the deceased person left behind.

This means, for example, that if Lisa's mom had $150,000 in a bank account when she died, the creditors could go after the estate, make a claim and potentially collect the $90,000 they were owed out of the money left in mom's bank account (that Lisa might have inherited otherwise).

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If there's no money in the estate, then the creditors are going to be out of luck.

However, if there are assets, then they are usually up for grabs unless the deceased person did some estate planning during their lifetime to try to shield assets from creditors by passing them outside the probate process.

And while creditors can normally try to collect from an estate, that may not be the case here, depending on whether mom took out private student loans or loans from the Department of Education.

There is good news for Lisa

The good news is that the Department of Education discharges Parent PLUS Loans upon the death of the parent (and even upon the death of the student), under federal regulation. So if mom took out federal loans, the government won't be coming after her estate to try to get the money back.

But that's not necessarily the case with private student loans. As The Earnest Blog explains, sometimes private lenders offer a death discharge but in other cases, the lender will try to recoup their funds from the estate of the deceased.

There's one more piece of good news worth knowing about, on the tax side. If the debt does get discharged, whether a federal Parent PLUS loan or a private loan with a death-discharge clause, that forgiven balance won't come with a tax bill attached. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed into law in July 2025, made permanent a federal tax exclusion for student loan debt discharged because of death or disability. That protection had been set to expire at the end of 2025 — now it's locked in for good.

None of this makes Lisa personally liable for a cent of that $90,000. But it does shape what she will actually inherit. The fate of her inheritance hinges upon whether her mom's lender decides to try to collect from the estate and what assets that would leave her with. In this case, Lisa's mom's individual lender's policy would determine what happens next.

If the debt was a Parent PLUS loan, it's already gone — federal law wipes it out automatically once the servicer has a death certificate in hand, no strings attached. If, on the other hand, it was a private loan without a death-discharge clause, the lender can still file a claim against whatever's left in the estate.

The best move once the notice from the servicer arrives: find out which type of loan it was, and go from there. Either way, Lisa won't be stuck writing checks out of her own pocket for a debt she never signed up for.

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This article originally appeared on Moneywise.com under the title: My mom just died and I found out she borrowed $90,000 to put me through school and never paid it back. Am I on the hook?

This article provides information only and should not be construed as advice. It is provided without warranty of any kind.