VGLI Conversion Options: How and When to Convert SGLI to VGLI

Veterans' Group Life Insurance (VGLI) is the program that lets you keep group life coverage after your Servicemembers' Group Life Insurance (SGLI) ends. SGLI continues free for 120 days after you separate. VGLI is what replaces it, and 2 deadlines control whether you can get it. Both are written into 38 CFR 9.2.

Source: https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-38/chapter-I/part-9/section-9.2, current as of September 2026.

The 240-day clock is the one that matters for most people. During those 8 months, VGLI is guaranteed. A condition you picked up in service, a diagnosis in your last year, a medication list that would worry a private underwriter: none of it counts. After day 240, it all counts.

Watch out: The clock runs from your date of separation on your DD Form 214, not from the day your SGLI ended or the day you remembered. If you separated on March 1, day 240 is October 27 and 1 year and 120 days lands the following June 29. Nothing extends either date, and OSGLI cannot accept a late application.

The Office of Servicemembers' Group Life Insurance (OSGLI), part of Prudential, administers VGLI and processes every application.

You may be eligible if you had SGLI and at least one of these is true:

• you are within 1 year and 120 days of release from active duty or active duty for training of 31 days or more,
• you are within 1 year and 120 days of retirement or release from the Ready Reserve or National Guard,
• you are within 1 year and 120 days of assignment to the Individual Ready Reserve or Inactive National Guard,
• you are within 1 year and 120 days of being placed on the Temporary Disability Retirement List, or
• you had part-time SGLI and, while on duty, suffered an injury or disability that disqualifies you from standard rates.

A VA disability rating is not required and does not change your VGLI premium. Veterans already out of service can still apply, as long as the deadline has not passed. There is no VGLI for someone who left service years ago; for them, the path is Veterans Affairs Life Insurance (VALife), covered below.

VGLI comes in $10,000 steps from $10,000 to $500,000. Your starting amount cannot be more than the SGLI you had on your last day of service. That rule is in 38 U.S.C. 1977, and it is the single most common way veterans lose coverage without noticing: a member who cut SGLI to $250,000 to save a few dollars a month is capped at $250,000 of VGLI for life.

You can grow the policy later, within limits:

• One year after you get VGLI, you can add $25,000.
• After that, you can add $25,000 once in each 5-year period.
• The ceiling is $500,000, and you must be under age 60 at the time of each increase.

The increases are optional and need no health questions. The age-60 limit applies only to adding coverage. VGLI itself is renewable for life and does not end or shrink at any age.

VGLI is priced in 5-year age bands, and your premium moves to the next band's rate as you age into it. VA cut VGLI premiums by 2% to 17% on July 1, 2025. The table below is that current rate card for the 3 amounts veterans ask about most; the VA.gov page lists every $10,000 step.

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

Read the curve, not just your row. $500,000 costs $30 a month at 25 and $95 at 45; that is affordable. The same policy costs $425 a month at 60, $1,075 at 70 and $2,200 at 80. Most veterans who keep VGLI into their 60s reduce the amount to hold the premium steady. You can lower coverage at any time; you cannot raise it back above the increase rules.

Compare that to SGLI, which costs a flat 5 cents per $1,000 regardless of age. $26 a month for $500,000 of SGLI becomes $30 of VGLI at 25, and the price never goes back down.

There are 2 ways to apply, and both go to OSGLI, not to a VA regional office:

1. Confirm your separation date and the SGLI amount on your DD Form 214 or in the SGLI Online Enrollment System (SOES) in milConnect. That amount is your VGLI ceiling.
2. Choose your coverage amount, from $10,000 up to that ceiling, in $10,000 steps.
3. Apply online at Prudential's OSGLI site (giosgli.prudential.com), or complete SGLV 8714, the Application for Veterans' Group Life Insurance, and mail or fax it to OSGLI at PO Box 41618, Philadelphia, PA 19176-9913.
4. Pay the first premium with the application. Under 38 CFR 9.2, the application and the initial premium must both arrive by the deadline; a form without payment does not stop the clock.
5. If you are past day 240, answer the health questions on the form and expect OSGLI to ask for more medical information before it decides.

Questions about an application go to OSGLI at 1-800-419-1473, Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. ET. Do not wait for a reminder from OSGLI or your branch; the deadline runs whether or not a notice reaches your current address.

Once VGLI is in force, you manage it through your online account at OSGLI or by form:

• Beneficiaries. You name them on the VGLI application. Change them online or with SGLV 8721, the VGLI Beneficiary Designation, and check them after the policy is issued and after every marriage, divorce or birth. Your spouse's Family SGLI (FSGLI) coverage does not convert to VGLI; the spouse has 120 days after your separation to convert it to an individual policy, as explained in the family SGLI benefits guide.
• Reinstatement. If VGLI lapses for non-payment, you can apply to reinstate it with SGLV 180, the Application for Reinstatement, sent to OSGLI. Reinstatement is not automatic, so a lapse is not a free pause; the form lists what OSGLI needs.
• Accelerated benefit. If you become terminally ill, with a physician's written prognosis of 9 months or less, you can draw up to 50% of the face value early using SGLV 8284.
• Converting to a permanent policy. VGLI is term insurance with no cash, loan or paid-up value. At any time while it is in force, you can convert it to a permanent policy (whole life) with a participating private insurer at that company's standard rates, with no medical exam. Term, variable and universal life policies are excluded. Ask OSGLI for a VGLI Conversion Notice and take it to the insurer; VA lists the participating companies on form SGL-133 (PDF).

Death claims use SGLV 8283, filed with OSGLI. The other benefits a family can claim are in the survivor benefits guide.

VGLI is one of 3 realistic paths after separation, and they solve different problems.

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

VALife is the newer program. Any veteran age 80 or younger with a service-connected rating, even 0%, can enroll at any time, with no deadline and no health questions. Coverage is $10,000 to $40,000 of whole life. The premium is set by your age at enrollment and never changes; for $40,000, that is $88.00 a month at age 40 and $200.00 at age 60 under the current VA table. The catch is a 2-year waiting period: die before it ends and your beneficiary gets your premiums back with interest, not the face amount. If you do not have a rating yet, the filing your first claim guide and the rating estimator are the place to start.

Private level term is where the "is VGLI worth it" debate lives. A healthy 30-year-old can usually buy a 20- or 30-year term policy for less per month than VGLI, and the price will not climb every 5 years. The trade is underwriting: a private insurer can raise the rate or decline you for the same conditions VGLI ignores in the 240-day window. Private carriers are not endorsed by VA, and pricing depends on the company; the supplemental coverage options guide explains how veterans stack policies.

A practical order many veterans follow: apply for VGLI inside 240 days so nothing lapses, enroll in VALife if you have a rating, then shop private term. If a private policy is issued, reduce or drop VGLI. If it is not, you still have guaranteed coverage. The VA life insurance guide compares all 5 VA programs in one table.

These are the errors that come up most often in veteran forums, and every one is avoidable while you are still in uniform:

• Lowering SGLI before discharge. Your VGLI ceiling is the SGLI amount on your last day. Set SGLI at the amount you might ever want in VGLI, even if you plan to reduce it later.
• Treating 1 year and 120 days as the real deadline. It is the last legal day, but day 241 is when health questions begin. Plan for 240.
• Waiting for a reminder. Any notice goes to the address your service had on file. Put the 240-day date on your own calendar and apply online.
• Assuming a disability rating helps or hurts. It does neither for VGLI. It does open VALife, which most veterans should at least price.
• Letting SGLI lapse before the replacement is issued. Private term takes weeks to underwrite. Keep VGLI until the new policy is in force.
• Forgetting the spouse. FSGLI ends with your SGLI; the spouse's 120-day conversion window runs at the same time as your own.

VGLI is a federal program and the premiums are the same in every state. What differs is what your state adds around it: several states run a death benefit or burial allowance for veterans' families, some exempt life insurance proceeds from state inheritance tax, and a few give National Guard members state-funded group life for state duty. Choose your state to see what applies.