{"id":54294,"date":"2020-03-11T02:32:50","date_gmt":"2020-03-11T02:32:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/uncategorized\/2020\/03\/11\/heres-why-you-need-to-think-about-military-life-insurance\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T08:27:56","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T08:27:56","slug":"heres-why-you-need-to-think-about-military-life-insurance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/management\/pay-benefits\/2020\/03\/11\/heres-why-you-need-to-think-about-military-life-insurance\/","title":{"rendered":"Here\u2019s why you need to think about military life insurance"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The service member planned carefully for his young son\u2019s future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He visited a military attorney for advice on the best way to designate his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/pay-benefits\/2019\/07\/11\/heres-why-youre-paying-less-for-military-life-insurance\/\" target=\"_blank\">military life insurance<\/a> policy, and was advised not to name his young son as beneficiary, but to set up other legal mechanisms for his son. The service member and his wife were estranged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So the service member discussed his wishes for his son with his parents, and named them as beneficiaries of his Servicemember\u2019s Group Life Insurance policy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">After the service member died, his parents followed their son\u2019s wishes. They\u2019ve ensured their grandson\u2019s future, according to the grandmother, by consulting with legal and financial experts to set up a legal mechanism for the life insurance money for their grandson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Most service members qualify for the SGLI program, and are automatically signed up through their service branch for the maximum of $400,000 coverage. Service members can reduce or opt out entirely from the program, although that is generally not advised. The coverage is available in increments of $50,000, and the maximum $400,000 coverage costs $26 per month, taken out of the service member\u2019s paycheck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That coverage includes $1 for traumatic SGLI protection, which pays varying amounts for short-term financial support to help eligible service members recover from a severe injury.<\/p>\n\n\n<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link smg-interstitial-link--fallback wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/static.militarytimes.com\/assets\/pdfs\/1582743273.pdf\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__fallback-link\">Here&#039;s a comparison of top military life insurance policies<\/a><\/aside>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While this service member knew what he wanted for his son, not everyone puts the time and effort into decisions about their Servicemembers\u2019 Group Life Insurance, and the impact they want the money to have on those they leave behind. Life insurance isn\u2019t something too many people want to think about, because it\u2019s tied to their own mortality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Service members need to think about their life insurance in another way, too, said Bonnie Carroll, president and founder of Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors, known as TAPS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cSGLI is a commercial insurance product. It\u2019s purchased. They pay premiums,\u201d she said. \u201cThey assign beneficiaries. It\u2019s something that they should manage as part of their financial portfolio. The money is coming out of their paycheck.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">TAPS provides resources, peer support and assistance for spouses, fianc\u00e9s, children, parents, siblings and other family members, as well as friends and colleagues of those who died while serving in the military, regardless of the circumstances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And over the 25 years since TAPS began its work, the organization has seen many cases where those left behind suffered financial distress because of decisions service members made about where the money would go after their death. In some cases those decisions about beneficiaries were made long before the death, and were not updated with marriage, divorce, birth or other events.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI could give you a thousand examples of where it\u2019s just been a mess, because people don\u2019t pay attention, or it causes division in families,\u201d Carroll said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cService members need to recognize this is something they\u2019re buying, it\u2019s something they have to pay attention to and assign to the person who is in their life,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cGranted, none of us wants to accept the fact that we\u2019re going to die, but it can happen to any of us at any time. But it\u2019s heartbreaking when we see the amount of chaos the assignment of these service-member-driven benefits and insurance policies can cause.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There have been times when the service member neglected to change earlier beneficiary designations, and $400,000 of life insurance money went to estranged parents \u2014 instead of the spouse who was left behind to take care of the children. Or a fiancee was left without previous financial support, such as help with college tuition. There have been cases when someone was left with payments on a vehicle that caused financial distress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to the Department of Veterans Affairs, there have been cases where insurance proceeds have been paid to ex-spouses when the insured person was remarried but failed to update their beneficiary designation. And there are cases where outdated designations cause delays in payment of claims, as officials try to find beneficiaries for whom they don\u2019t have current contact information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The military services educate service members about the importance of keeping their SGLI information up to date, and emphasize this before deployments. Carroll noted that the relatively new SGLI Online Enrollment System, SOES, makes it easier now for service members to manage their SGLI coverage, and to make sure their information is up to date, including their designations for who gets the insurance money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The SOES is being used by the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps and Coast Guard, and eliminates the paper-based process for members when they\u2019re making changes to their SGLI. Service members can check their current information, change their life insurance coverage and beneficiary information at any time online without completing a paper form or making a trip to their personnel office. Service members can sign in to the program at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dmdc.osd.mil\/milconnect\">www.dmdc.osd.mil\/milconnect<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Being thoughtful about every aspect of life insurance is \u201cjust being a responsible steward of your finances,\u201d Carroll said. \u201cThink about the person in your life who will be financially responsible for things that are important to you \u2014 raising your children, taking care of your personal effects, or settling your estate and debts.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe ones who are closest to you are the ones you\u2019re giving the resources to do that for you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/management\/pay-benefits\/2019\/07\/11\/heres-why-youre-paying-less-for-military-life-insurance\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/635903545408384264-thinkstockphotos-504572620jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">Here\u2019s why you\u2019re paying less for military life insurance<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">Premiums decreased by $4 a month for the maximum $400,000 SGLI coverage.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><b>How much life insurance do you need to buy? <\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When you\u2019re making these decisions about life insurance \u2014 who gets the money, and how much money \u2014 everyone\u2019s situation is different because of personal and financial differences. Will your children or spouse need money for college? Consider your current debts, such as mortgage, vehicle payments, credit card bills, student loans and personal loans. What other savings, investments and assets do you have? Spouses and children of service members who die on active duty receive certain monthly benefits from the government, such as VA Dependency and Indemnity Compensation, Social Security survivor benefits, Survivor Benefit Plan income. Will your family need the life insurance money to supplement the household income?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Some service members choose to buy extra life insurance in addition to SGLI, for various needs. This can also be helpful for service members to buy extra life insurance at an earlier age, when it is less expensive \u2014 and easier to purchase than later in life when some health issues might arise. SGLI coverage ends when the service member leaves the military, although it can be converted to the Veterans\u2019 Group Life Insurance program. VGLI is generally more expensive than some other insurance programs, although everyone leaving the military with SGLI coverage qualifies for VGLI, and no health exam is required if the service member applies within 240 days of separation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!DOCTYPE html>\r\n<html>\r\n  <head>\r\n    <title>Title of the document<\/title>\r\n  <\/head>\r\n  <body>\r\n    <h3>Comparing insurance plans<\/h3>\r\n    <iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/static.militarytimes.com\/assets\/pdfs\/1582743273.pdf\" width=\"100%\" height=\"500px\">\r\n    <\/iframe>\r\n  <\/body>\r\n<\/html>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Service members should shop carefully when buying extra life insurance. For example, some insurance companies have war clauses, which could mean that if a service member dies as a result of serving in war, the company wouldn\u2019t make the insurance payout. SGLI doesn\u2019t have a war clause, and our chart in this edition lists 12 insurance plans offered by other organizations and companies that don\u2019t have war clauses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There are a number of life insurance needs calculators available to help you determine insurance needs. Two of those were developed by two nonprofit organizations:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">American Armed Forces Mutual Aid Association: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aafmaa.com\/learning-hub\/life-insurance\/tools\/calculate-your-insurance-needs\">https:\/\/www.aafmaa.com\/learning-hub\/life-insurance\/tools\/calculate-your-insurance-needs<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Navy Mutual: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.navymutual.org\/planning-tools\/financial-calculators\/life-insurance-calculator\/\">https:\/\/www.navymutual.org\/planning-tools\/financial-calculators\/life-insurance-calculator\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With SGLI, you can&#8217;t just set it and forget it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":90259,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":15,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[100,23,93,83,25,15,18],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3343],"class_list":["post-54294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-home","category-middle-column","category-mil-money","category-newsletters","category-pay-benefits","category-spouse"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"UOBTHKWDKVFWFELFVRM365IPG4","arc_canonical_url":"\/pay-benefits\/2020\/03\/11\/heres-why-you-need-to-think-about-military-life-insurance\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Here\u2019s why you need to think about military life insurance - Army Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"With SGLI, you can&#039;t just set it and forget it.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Here\u2019s why you need to think about military life insurance\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"With SGLI, you can&#039;t just set it and forget it.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/management\/pay-benefits\/2020\/03\/11\/heres-why-you-need-to-think-about-military-life-insurance\/\" \/>\n<meta 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