VA Life Insurance: Every Program Explained (SGLI, VGLI, VALife, FSGLI, VMLI)

VA runs its life insurance programs under 38 U.S.C. Chapter 19. The group programs (SGLI, VGLI, FSGLI, TSGLI) are administered by the Office of Servicemembers' Group Life Insurance (OSGLI), which is part of Prudential. The rest (VALife, S-DVI, VMLI) are run directly by the VA Insurance Center.

The table below is the whole picture. The sections that follow explain each row.

Source: https://www.va.gov/life-insurance/, effective July 1, 2025.

Service-Disabled Veterans Insurance (S-DVI) is not in the table because it closed to new applicants after December 31, 2022. If you still hold an S-DVI policy, see the legacy section below.

Servicemembers' Group Life Insurance (SGLI) is the term policy almost every service member already has. If you are active duty, a cadet or midshipman, in the Ready Reserve or National Guard with scheduled drills, or a commissioned member of NOAA or the Public Health Service, you are enrolled automatically at the top amount.

The numbers, effective July 1, 2025:

• Coverage up to $500,000, in $50,000 increments.
• Premium of 5 cents per $1,000 of coverage per month, plus $1 a month for Traumatic Injury Protection (TSGLI).
• Maximum cost of $26 a month, taken out of base pay.

SGLI is pure term insurance. It pays dividends to no one and has no cash, loan or paid-up value. You manage the amount and your beneficiaries in the SGLI Online Enrollment System (SOES) inside milConnect. Members without SOES access use paper form SGLV 8286.

When you leave the military, SGLI stays in force free for 120 days. That window is the start of every exit decision on this page. The full detail, including beneficiary rules and the TSGLI payout schedule, is in the SGLI coverage guide.

Veterans' Group Life Insurance (VGLI) is the program that lets you keep group term coverage after you leave. It is renewable for life, but the price rises with each 5-year age band.

You may be eligible if you had SGLI and you are within 1 year and 120 days of one of these:

• release from active duty of 31 days or more,
• retirement or release from the Ready Reserve or National Guard,
• assignment to the Individual Ready Reserve or Inactive National Guard, or
• placement on the Temporary Disability Retirement List.

Two clocks matter, and 38 CFR 9.2 sets both:

Watch out: Apply within 240 days of separation and no health questions are asked. Between day 241 and 1 year plus 120 days, you must give evidence of good health, and a new condition can get you declined. After 1 year and 120 days, the door closes for good.

Your starting VGLI amount can be any amount from $10,000 up to the SGLI coverage you had at separation. You can add $25,000 one year after you get VGLI, then every 5 years, until age 60, as long as you stay under $500,000. Effective July 1, 2025, $500,000 of VGLI costs $30 a month if you are 29 or younger, $95 a month at ages 45 to 49, and $2,200 a month at 80 and over. The full age table, the application steps and the reinstatement rules are in the VGLI conversion options guide.

Veterans Affairs Life Insurance (VALife) opened on January 1, 2023 and is now the only VA program a veteran can get years after leaving service. It is guaranteed-acceptance whole life insurance. There is no medical exam and no health questions.

You may be eligible if both of these are true:

• you are age 80 or younger, and
• you have a VA service-connected disability rating, even if the rating is 0%.

If you are 81 or older, you can still enroll only if you applied for compensation before you turned 81, got the rating after you turned 81, and apply for VALife within 2 years of the rating notice. Otherwise there is no deadline. A veteran rated 30 years ago can apply today.

What the policy does:

• Coverage from $10,000 to $40,000, in $10,000 increments.
• Premiums are set by your age when you enroll and never go up.
• Cash value starts building 2 years after VA approves the application.
• There is a 2-year waiting period. If you die during it, VA pays your beneficiaries every premium you paid plus interest (4.23% for 2026), not the face amount. After 2 years, the full amount is paid.

Sample monthly premiums for $40,000 of coverage, effective in the current rate table on VA.gov: $88.00 at age 40, $200.00 at age 60, and $510.00 at age 80. Because the rate is fixed by your age at enrollment, applying earlier locks in a lower premium for life. If you do not have a rating yet, the VA disability guide explains how a claim works, and the rating estimator shows how conditions combine.

VALife claims are filed with the VA Insurance Center on VA Form 29-4125. Questions go to 1-800-669-8477 (TTY: 711; call for current hours).

These 2 programs do different jobs, so the question is usually not either-or. Three comparisons settle most decisions:

Source: https://www.va.gov/life-insurance/options-eligibility/vgli/ and https://www.va.gov/life-insurance/options-eligibility/valife/, effective July 1, 2025.

A common pattern: a veteran with young children keeps a large VGLI amount for the years a mortgage and childcare depend on their income, then lets VGLI lapse or shrink as it gets expensive in their 60s, while a $40,000 VALife policy stays in force for final expenses. Another pattern: a veteran with a health condition that would fail private underwriting takes both, because neither asks a health question at the right time.

VALife's 2-year waiting period is the reason not to drop other coverage the day you enroll. If VGLI is your only coverage, keeping it until VALife's full benefit starts avoids a gap.

Family Servicemembers' Group Life Insurance (FSGLI) covers the family of a member who has full-time SGLI, whether active duty, Guard or Ready Reserve.

• Spouse: up to $100,000, but never more than the member's own SGLI amount. Premiums depend on the spouse's age; for example, $100,000 costs $4.00 a month for a spouse under 35, effective July 1, 2025.
• Children: $10,000 each, free, to age 18, or longer for a full-time student through age 22 or a child who is permanently unable to support themselves.

Spouse coverage does not follow you into VGLI. Within 120 days after the member separates, the couple divorces, or the member dies, the spouse can convert to a permanent individual policy with a participating insurer without health questions. The family SGLI benefits guide covers enrollment forms and the spouse premium table. Support programs for family members are in the veteran family member programs guide.

Veterans' Mortgage Life Insurance (VMLI) is for veterans with a severe service-connected disability who received a Specially Adapted Housing (SAH) grant. You must hold title to the home, have a mortgage, and be under age 70. VMLI pays up to $200,000 straight to the lender, and the coverage decreases as the mortgage balance falls. You apply with VA Form 29-8636 through the loan guaranty agent who handles your grant. The grant itself is explained in the SAH and SHA grants guide and the adapted housing application guide.

Traumatic Injury Protection (TSGLI) is not a separate policy you buy. It rides on SGLI for a flat $1 a month and pays $25,000 to $100,000 for a scheduled loss (an amputation, loss of sight, a long hospital stay, or the inability to do daily activities) that results from a traumatic injury. The loss must occur within 2 years (730 days) of the injury and you must survive at least 7 days. Claims use SGLV 8600 and go to your service branch. Injuries between October 7, 2001 and November 30, 2005 can be claimed retroactively regardless of where they happened.

Service-Disabled Veterans Insurance (S-DVI) was the whole-life program for service-connected veterans for decades. It stopped taking new applications after December 31, 2022, the day before VALife opened. Supplemental S-DVI closed on the same date.

If you already have S-DVI, nothing happens to it unless you act. Two rules matter if you are thinking about switching to VALife:

• Veterans who applied for VALife by December 31, 2025 keep S-DVI during VALife's 2-year waiting period, paying both premiums.
• Veterans who apply on or after January 1, 2026 lose S-DVI the moment VALife is approved. Only VALife premiums are due during the waiting period.

Watch out: S-DVI offered a premium waiver for veterans with a total disability. VALife has no waiver, and an existing S-DVI waiver does not transfer. If you are on a waiver today, moving to VALife means paying premiums for the first time. Run the numbers before you apply.

VA also still services a small number of policies from the World War I, World War II and Korean War era programs. These are closed and are handled by the same VA Insurance Center number as VALife.

Where you go depends on the program:

• SGLI and FSGLI: enroll, change amounts and name beneficiaries in SOES through milConnect (or SGLV 8286 on paper). If you name no beneficiary, the law pays your surviving spouse first, then children, then parents, then your estate, then next of kin.
• VGLI: apply online at Prudential's OSGLI site or mail SGLV 8714. Change beneficiaries online or with SGLV 8721.
• VALife: apply online on VA.gov. You pay the first premium when you enroll.
• VMLI: VA Form 29-8636, through your SAH loan guaranty agent.

Death claims follow the same split. A family files SGLV 8283 with OSGLI for SGLI, VGLI or FSGLI, and VA Form 29-4125 with the VA Insurance Center for VALife, S-DVI or VMLI. If the veteran was terminally ill, SGLI and VGLI can pay up to 50% of the face value early under the accelerated benefit (SGLV 8284) on a physician's prognosis of 9 months or less. Other benefits a family can claim after a death are in the survivor benefits guide.

Contact numbers, as VA lists them: OSGLI for SGLI, VGLI, FSGLI and TSGLI at 1-800-419-1473, Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. ET; VA Insurance Center for VALife, S-DVI and VMLI at 1-800-669-8477 (call for current hours).

VA programs are not always the cheapest option, and VA does not claim they are. VGLI's strength is guaranteed acceptance in the 240-day window, not price. A healthy veteran in their 30s or 40s can often buy a 20- or 30-year level-premium term policy on the private market for less than VGLI will cost over the same years, because VGLI's premium steps up every 5 years and private level term does not.

The private market is the wrong answer when a health condition would raise your rate or get you declined. Then VGLI (inside the deadline) and VALife (any time, with a rating) are the guaranteed paths. There is also a middle route: within 120 days of separation, or at any point while you hold VGLI, you can convert to a permanent policy with a participating private insurer at standard rates without health questions. Term, variable and universal policies are excluded from that conversion right.

Whatever you choose, do not let SGLI lapse before the replacement is in force. The supplemental coverage options guide walks through how veterans layer VA and private coverage, and neutral notes on veteran pricing from private carriers are in the veteran discounts guide.

VA life insurance is federal and does not change by state, but many states run their own death benefits for veterans' families: a state death gratuity, a burial allowance, or a state life insurance program for National Guard members on state duty. A few states also exempt life insurance proceeds from state inheritance tax. Choose your state to see what applies where you live.