VGLI is the easiest coverage a separating veteran will ever get — and for a lot of families it is also the most expensive way to stay insured. Here is the honest, side-by-side version: cost as you age, how much you can actually buy, and what follows you after you take off the uniform.
If you're healthy, private term almost always wins. A level term policy locks one price for 20 or 30 years and can be written for far more than $500,000. VGLI steps up every five years and caps out at whatever SGLI you carried the day you separated.
If your health or a service-connected condition complicates underwriting, VGLI is a gift. Guaranteed issue inside 240 days of separation, no exam, no questions. That is coverage the private market may not offer you at any reasonable price.
Most veteran families end up somewhere in between: keep VGLI as a base layer, own a level term policy underneath it for the real number, and revisit when the next age band hits.
Eight things worth comparing before you decide what each layer of your plan should do.
Check the current VA rate table before you decide. VGLI premiums are published by age band and get updated periodically. Your own statement and today's rate schedule beat any general comparison, including this one.
Separated at 34, now a paramedic. Spouse and two kids, $265,000 on the mortgage, $82,000 income. Carried $400,000 of SGLI at separation. Here is how the two paths hold up.
Illustrative only — your VGLI age band, health, and carrier pricing decide the real outcome.
Veterans' Group Life Insurance is the VA program that lets you convert SGLI to a renewable group term policy after you separate from service. It is guaranteed-issue if you apply within 240 days of separation — no medical questions, no exam — which is its single biggest advantage.
VGLI is capped at the amount of SGLI you carried at separation, in $10,000 increments, up to the SGLI maximum of $500,000. For a household with a mortgage, kids, and one income doing the heavy lifting, $500,000 is often well short of the real number.
Yes. VGLI premiums are age-banded and step up every five years. It looks inexpensive in your thirties and gets expensive fast in your fifties and sixties — which is exactly when many veterans decide to drop it, right when their family still needs coverage.
For a healthy veteran, usually yes — often dramatically so, because level term locks one price for 10, 20, or 30 years instead of stepping up every five. If you have significant health issues or a service-connected condition that complicates underwriting, VGLI's guaranteed-issue pricing can end up being the better deal.
Yes. Life insurance policies are not coordinated — each one pays its own death benefit. Many veterans keep VGLI as a base layer while a personally owned level term policy carries the mortgage and income replacement, then drop VGLI later if the price outruns its value.
Apply for VGLI within 240 days of separation and no health questions are asked. After that window (up to one year and 120 days) you can still apply, but you have to answer health questions and prove insurability. If you are healthy, that same window is the right time to shop private term — you will likely get more coverage for less.
VGLI has no occupational or hazardous-duty exclusion, so a veteran now working police, fire, or EMS is covered. Most quality private carriers also cover duty-related death; your occupation affects the rate, not whether the claim pays. Read any policy before you sign either way.
PJ Tinsley is a former paramedic. Send over your VGLI amount and premium and we'll show you what it costs over the next twenty years versus what a private policy would. Free call, no pitch.
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