Student Loan Experts/Estate Lawyers: Parent Plus Loans upon death?

[cincystache]

A friend of mine's parents have six figures in consolidated parent plus federal student loans

They are both 60 and live in Ohio

He makes about 100,000 per year and she does not work

They have some money in a 401k and some cash (maybe 75k total) as well as two paid off cars worth about 7k each.

The loan is in his name only (I believe)

He also has a universal life insurance policy with a death benefit of a couple hundred thousand

QUESTIONS:
If he were to die first, would the loan be forgiven completely or would the wife inherit the loan?
If she were to die first, and he couldn't finish making the payments before he died, would the life insurance, 401k, and cash be put towards the remaining balance of the loan before going to the children?

Any advice or guidance is appreciated, as always.

Thanks!

[little_brown_dog]

Studentaid.ed.gov indicates that the loan is completely discharged on the death of the borrower (the parent). It doesn't say anything about the loan being repaid through the parent's estate.  However, my understanding is that if the borrower can't pay the loan but is still alive and physically able, he would either have to go on some sort of payment plan, or risk the govt attempting to extract payments via garnished wages, etc. I don't know how it would workout for the wife though...

https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/repay-loans/forgiveness-cancellation/death