In addition, my wife has her own student loans, which total over $40,000 and have rates from 3% to nearly 7%. The government can pursue her to her grave because there’s no statute of limitations on federal student loan debt collections. Even bankruptcy isn’t a viable option for most borrowers because student loan debt is extremely hard to get erased. So liquidating other assets to pay off the parent loan may be the best option. If you lost your job after paying off the parent loan, you couldn’t get that money back to pay your expenses.

Source: Los Angeles Times January 15, 2017 11:02 UTC