Does My College Student Need Life Insurance?

It may not be on your radar, but there are important factors to consider when determining if your college student needs life insurance.

While students of all ages are currently making their way to the digital and physical seats in college classrooms, higher education – particularly undergraduate college – is defined by younger attendees. Fresh out of high school with decades of learning and living ahead of them, life insurance isn’t typically even a blip on a college student’s radar – but should it be?

Determining if your College Student Needs Life Insurance

Indeed, the life situations and needs of a 19 or 20-year-old are often significantly different than someone 40 or older, but that doesn’t mean there are not important overlaps to consider, such as:

• Lingering debts from housing or vehicle loans
• Open grants or student loans that require repayment
• Cohabitation costs

DEBTS LINGER ON – EVEN FOR STUDENTS

Large debts have a stubborn way of sticking around, even if the original debt holder isn’t able to pay them. That means that a new, reliable vehicle financed to help ferry a college student to and from campus ends up as an expensive liability in the event a student can no longer pay their car note.

While college students may be living out of the dorms or renting a partial or full apartment in the short term, a car or truck can end up being a financially painful burden in an uncertain time. If the student carried an appropriate amount of life insurance, the remaining debt could be paid off and a liability transforms into a resource that may help in a trying time.

GRANTS AND LOANS NEED REPAYMENT

Unexpected situations, by definition, won’t wait for a convenient moment to strike. If a life insurance policy is needed mid-term, all the school debts associated with that semester (or even that year, depending on a college’s billing practices) may come due from an estate. That means considerations like tuition, room and board, books, equipment or lab rental, and more all need to be paid, regardless of how much they’ll go unused in the future.

If a college student is relying on a conditional grant or an on-campus work-study program to pay their debts as they go along, this is an especially important consideration. A college student’s life insurance policy takes the stress of the unknown out of settling a semester’s financial obligations.

COHABITATION CONCERNS

It’s not unusual for groups of college students to rent a home or apartment together for school, or for college student couples to do the same as they start their lives together. With so much time and energy devoted to studies, the types of jobs that college students typically have are generally more of a hand-to-mouth variety than positions with generous pay.

The loss of even partial income can be devastating if it occurs without warning, which is why a life insurance policy for college students can be a genuine lifesaver for those they care about. Partners, friends and family can be financially provided for in nearly every life scenario – plausible and improbable alike with a bit of forethought.

If you’re looking to lock in financial security for yourself as you attend higher education, or to secure that stability for a student in your family, consider buying a term life policy for college students. It’s one less worry at one of the most stressful periods in an academic lifetime, after all.