Does the VA Offer Life Insurance? SGLI, VGLI, and VALife

The Department of Veterans Affairs offers life insurance through five main programs: Servicemembers’ Group Life Insurance (SGLI) for people on active duty, Family SGLI (FSGLI) for their spouses and children, Veterans’ Group Life Insurance (VGLI) after separation, Veterans Affairs Life Insurance (VALife) for veterans with any service-connected disability rating, and Veterans’ Mortgage Life Insurance (VMLI) for those with a Specially Adapted Housing grant. A sixth benefit, Traumatic Injury Protection (TSGLI), rides along with SGLI and pays a lump sum for severe injuries rather than death. Which VA life insurance program fits you depends on where you are in your service: still in uniform, within the first year after separation, or living with a service-connected disability.

Which VA Program Fits Your Situation

If you are currently serving on active duty or in qualifying reserve status, SGLI covers you automatically up to $500,000, and FSGLI covers your spouse and children. If you are separating or recently separated, you have a limited window to roll that coverage into VGLI or convert it to a private policy without a medical exam. If you have any VA disability rating, VALife will accept you with no health questions regardless of when you left the service. If you received a Specially Adapted Housing grant, VMLI pays off your mortgage if you die.

The programs do not stack arbitrarily. SGLI and VGLI combined cannot exceed $500,000, VALife tops out at $40,000, and VMLI pays only your remaining mortgage balance up to $200,000.

SGLI: Automatic Coverage for Active Duty

If you are on active duty, you are almost certainly already enrolled. SGLI automatically covers active-duty members of every branch, including the Space Force, as well as cadets, midshipmen, Ready Reserve and National Guard members scheduled for at least 12 training periods per year, and commissioned members of NOAA and the U.S. Public Health Service.¹ You can decline or reduce coverage, but you have to actively opt out in writing.

Coverage goes up to $500,000 in $50,000 increments.² At the maximum level, the premium is $30 per month for the life insurance plus $1 for Traumatic Injury Protection, bringing the total to $31 deducted from your base pay.³ The rate does not change based on your age or health.

You can adjust your coverage amount or beneficiary through the SGLI Online Enrollment System (SOES) on milConnect.⁴

FSGLI: Spouse and Child Coverage

FSGLI extends coverage to the family members of a service member enrolled in full-time SGLI. Spouses can be covered for up to $100,000 in $10,000 increments, but the spouse’s amount cannot exceed the service member’s own SGLI coverage. The premium is deducted from the service member’s pay.⁵

Each dependent child is automatically covered for $10,000 at no cost. You cannot decline, reduce, or convert the children’s coverage. Children registered in the Defense Enrollment Eligibility Reporting System (DEERS) while the sponsor holds full-time SGLI are enrolled without a separate application.⁵

TSGLI: Traumatic Injury Protection

TSGLI is not life insurance. It pays a one-time benefit of $25,000 to $100,000 directly to a service member who suffers a severe injury from a traumatic event. The amount depends on the type and severity of the loss. Loss of hearing in both ears pays $100,000; loss of hearing in one ear pays $25,000. Amputation of a hand or foot pays $50,000 per limb. Severe burns covering at least 20 percent of the body pay $100,000.⁶

Multiple losses from a single event can be combined, but the total payout is capped at $100,000 per event. Qualifying conditions also include paralysis, traumatic brain injury that prevents daily living activities, and certain facial reconstructions. The $1 monthly charge inside your SGLI premium covers this benefit automatically.¹

VGLI: Keeping Coverage After You Separate

VGLI lets you carry your SGLI coverage amount forward as renewable term insurance after you leave the military. You can keep up to $500,000. If you start with less than the maximum, you can increase by $25,000 one year after enrollment and every five years after that.⁷

The deadlines matter. You must apply within one year and 120 days of leaving the military, the Ready Reserve, or the National Guard. If you apply within the first 240 days, you do not need to prove you are in good health. Apply after 240 days but before the final deadline, and you will have to submit medical evidence of insurability.⁷ Miss the one-year-and-120-day window entirely and you are locked out.

Unlike SGLI’s flat rate, VGLI premiums are age-based and climb as you get older. A veteran aged 29 or younger pays $30 per month for $500,000 in coverage. By age 80 and older, that same coverage costs $2,200 per month.⁷ For younger, healthy veterans, VGLI often works best as a bridge while you shop the private term market. VGLI can be converted to a private permanent policy at any time without health questions, which gives you a fallback if your health later changes.⁸

You can apply online through the Office of Servicemembers’ Group Life Insurance (OSGLI) website, or by mailing or faxing Form SGLV 8714 to OSGLI at PO Box 41618, Philadelphia, PA 19176-9913.⁷

VALife: Guaranteed Coverage for Service-Connected Disabilities

VALife is the VA’s program for veterans with service-connected disabilities, and it is the easiest to qualify for. If you have any VA disability rating, even 0 percent, and you are 80 or younger, you are approved automatically. No medical exam, no health questions.⁹ VALife launched in January 2023 and replaced the older Service-Disabled Veterans Life Insurance (S-DVI) program, which closed to new enrollment at the end of 2022.¹⁰

Coverage goes up to $40,000 in $10,000 increments. It is whole life insurance, so it builds cash value, but that cash value does not begin accruing until two years after your application is approved.¹¹ The two-year waiting period applies again if you later increase your coverage amount. Apply directly through VA.gov; most applicants get an immediate decision.¹²

Your discharge character matters. You generally need a discharge under conditions other than dishonorable, though the VA reviews other-than-honorable or bad conduct discharges case by case.¹³

VMLI: Mortgage Protection for Adapted Housing

VMLI is the most narrowly targeted VA insurance program. It is available only to veterans who have received a Specially Adapted Housing (SAH) grant because of a severe service-connected disability, hold title to the adapted home, carry a mortgage on it, and are under 70 years old.¹⁴

Coverage equals your remaining mortgage balance, up to $200,000.¹⁵ Unlike every other VA life insurance program, the payout goes directly to the mortgage lender rather than to a beneficiary. It is decreasing term insurance, so coverage shrinks as your mortgage balance drops and ends when the loan is paid off. There is no cash value and no dividends. You do not apply separately; your loan guaranty agent determines eligibility after you receive your SAH grant.¹⁴

The 120-Day Window When You Leave the Military

This is where most veterans lose track of their protection. When you separate, SGLI does not vanish immediately. You get 120 days of free coverage from your separation date. If you are totally disabled at discharge, that free coverage extends up to two years.¹

After those 120 days, you have two paths to stay covered without a gap:

Convert to a private permanent (whole life) policy with a participating private insurer, within 120 days of separation, with no medical exam or health questions. Not every company participates in every state, so confirm availability with the insurer. The same option applies to FSGLI spousal coverage within 120 days of the service member’s separation, divorce, or death.⁸
Enroll in VGLI, following the one-year-and-120-day deadline rules above.

Conversion policies tend to cost more than term insurance because they are permanent plans, but the no-health-questions guarantee makes them valuable for anyone with medical conditions that would make private underwriting difficult.

Beneficiaries and Death Claims

The VA will pay based on whatever designation is on file at the time of death, regardless of whether it still reflects your wishes. A divorce, remarriage, or birth of a child does not automatically update your beneficiary. Update methods vary by program:

Full-time SGLI: SGLI Online Enrollment System (SOES) through milConnect.
VGLI: online through your VGLI policy portal, or Form SGLV 8721 by fax or mail to OSGLI.
VALife: online through the VA’s Online Policy Access website.
Older VA policies (prefixes V, RH, J, RS, K, or W): Online Policy Access, or Form 29-336 mailed to the VA Regional Office and Insurance Center in Janesville, Wisconsin.⁴

If you never designate a beneficiary, or all your named beneficiaries die before you, SGLI and VGLI proceeds follow a statutory order starting with the surviving spouse, then children, then parents, then the estate’s executor, then other next of kin under state law.¹⁶ That default may not match what you would actually want, so keeping your designation current is worth the five minutes it takes.

Filing the Claim

Beneficiaries need a copy of the death certificate in every case, but original certified copies are not required for VA life insurance claims. The forms depend on the program: Form SGLV 8283 for SGLI (when not on active duty at time of death) and VGLI; Form SGLV 8283A for FSGLI; and VA Form 29-4125e, filed online, for VALife and older VA policies.¹⁷ A minor or legally incompetent beneficiary files through a guardian or representative, and a contingent beneficiary must provide death certificates for any principal beneficiaries who died first.

Accelerated Benefits If You Are Terminally Ill

Policyholders with SGLI, FSGLI, or VGLI who receive a terminal diagnosis with a life expectancy of nine months or less can access up to 50 percent of the policy’s face value before death, paid in $5,000 increments. Only the insured (or someone with legal authority such as power of attorney) can apply.¹⁸

Taxes on VA Life Insurance Proceeds

Life insurance death benefits are generally excluded from the beneficiary’s federal gross income. Under the tax code, amounts received under a life insurance contract by reason of the insured’s death are not taxable income.¹⁹ This applies to SGLI, VGLI, VALife, and other VA life insurance proceeds alike. Interest that accrues on those proceeds after the death is taxable and must be reported as interest income.²⁰

Federal estate tax is a separate question. The proceeds are exempt from direct income tax, but their value can be included in the decedent’s gross estate for estate tax purposes. For most veteran families the estate tax exemption makes this moot; for larger estates it is worth asking a tax professional before assuming the payout passes untouched.

1
Veterans Affairs. Servicemembers Group Life Insurance (SGLI)
2
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 38 USC 1967 – Persons Insured; Amount
3
Veterans Affairs. SGLI Increase to $500,000 FAQs
4
Veterans Affairs. Life Insurance – Update Your Insurance Beneficiary
5
Veterans Affairs. Family Servicemembers Group Life Insurance (FSGLI)
6
Veterans Affairs. Life Insurance – TSGLI Loss Standards
7
Veterans Affairs. Veterans Group Life Insurance (VGLI)
8
Veterans Affairs. Should I Convert My Coverage to an Individual Policy
9
Veterans Affairs. Veterans Affairs Life Insurance (VALife)
10
Veterans Benefits Administration. VALife Factsheet
11
eCFR. 38 CFR 8.11 – Cash Value
12
Veterans Affairs. Veterans Affairs Life Insurance (VALife) FAQs
13
Veterans Benefits Administration. Applying for Benefits and Your Character of Discharge
14
Veterans Affairs. Veterans Mortgage Life Insurance (VMLI)
15
eCFR. 38 CFR 8a.2 – Maximum Amount of Insurance
16
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 38 US Code 1970 – Beneficiaries; Payment of Insurance
17
Veterans Affairs. How to File an Insurance Death Claim
18
Veterans Affairs. Totally Disabled or Terminally Ill Policyholders
19
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 101 – Certain Death Benefits
20
Internal Revenue Service. Life Insurance and Disability Insurance Proceeds