If you are a military service member, you are enabled to purchase life insurance coverage from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) both for yourself and your family, while you are active and after you retire. There are many kinds of policies available to purchase. All of them are underwritten by Prudential, one of the best insurance companies on the globe.
Below are the details that you can go through including about the veteran life insurance death benefits. Check them out all below to know better.
Contents
The Plans Availability
There are a few different life insurance plan options available depending on whether you are in active duty or looking for life insurance after you retire. This way, you can actually purchase one of the plans below both for you and your family members.
Servicemember’s Group Life Insurance (SGLI)
Servicemember’s Group Life Insurance (SGLI) policy is basically designed and available for active servicemembers in the Navy, Army, Air Force, Marines or Coast Guard. This policy is also available for specific reserve members, cadets, NOAA or Individual Ready Reserve volunteers.
SGLI offers the total coverage limit at $400,000 that you can purchase it in $50,000 increments along with a base premium rate of $0.06 per $1,000 in coverage which is paid each month.
SGLI coverage will end 120 days after you retire from military. This way, the disabled members are allowed to receive a free-two year extension of coverage if there is any requirement they can meet.
Family Servicemember’s Group Life Insurance
Family Servicemember’s Group Life Insurance is a plan designed for the spouse and dependent children of a servicemember. The policy provided by this plan is aimed for those who are in active duty orders or is a reserve member of the National Guard or Ready Reserve as well as for those with SGLI coverage.
You can get a free dependent child coverage along with FSGLI with $10,000 life insurance protection per child. The spouses can surely buy up to $100,000 in life insurance though this cannot surpass the coverage limit of servicemember’s SGLI.
This Family Servicemember’s Group Life Insurance are tiered based on the age. It is available from $0.045 to $0.45 per $1,00 in coverage.
Veteran’s Group Life Insurance (VGLI)
In relation to veteran life insurance death benefits, the third plan available is called veteran’s Group Life Insurance (VGLI). Once you leave your military service, you may qualify for keeping the coverage under the Veteran’s Group Life Insurance plan. If you want to purchase this plan, you’ll be required to apply within one year and 120 days from the date you retire.
VGLI coverage is available only if you have already had an SGLI plan with the limit ranging from $10,000 to $400,000. It is also possible that you increase the coverage by $25,000 every five years until you get $400,000 maximum when you reach your 60 age.
However, you don’t have to provide proof of insurability if you sign up for VGLI within 240 days of retiring. In other words, you need to enclose your evidence of health record if you apply for VGLI after 240 days.
CGLI premium are based on the age and ranging from $0.07 to S0.45 per $1,000 in coverage. This way, you can change your VGLI coverage into a civilian whole life policy anytime without the need to include a proof insurability.
The Riders Availability
In addition to the plans availability, the riders are also available on VA life insurance policies. These riders are automatically listed without any additional charge. The riders provided by the Veteran Life Insurance are as follows:
Waiver of Premiums
Waiver of premiums are designed for veterans that have already a life insurance coverage and become disable completely. This rider allows you to continue your coverage without paying the monthly premiums.
Accelerated Benefits
Using accelerated benefits rider, you are enabled to access up to 50% of your VA policy’s death benefit in $5,000 increments. This is under the condition that you are terminally sick with nine months or less to survive living.
With accelerated benefits rider, you can even withdraw your money that is subtracted from the policy’s death benefit.
Death Benefits for Veterans
Now we finally focus on veteran life insurance death benefits that the review will explain in details. Well, if you are a veteran and you retire with honor, you will qualify for the life insurance death benefits and eligible for burial in a national veteran cemetery.
In this regards, you can receive military funeral honors along with memorial items whether you are interred in a private cemetery or veterans one.
The death benefits or burial allowance will be provided for family members of some vets buried in private cemeteries. The qualified veterans are those who will receive a VA disability compensation or pensions when they still live. The death benefits can be very helpful to fund the burial, funeral and transportation costs.
Free Military Funeral Honors and Memorial Items
Life insurance death benefits that is for Veterans include free military funeral honors. The veterans will also be qualify for getting free memorial items such as the headstone, markers, medallions, burial flag and presidential memorial certificate.
Qualification for Veteran Life Insurance Death Benefits
There are conditions at which you may be qualified to receive death benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs. In this regards, you will be eligible if you pay for the veteran’s burial and funeral costs and there is no other organization that will reimburse you.
You will also be eligible to receive the death benefits if you are the surviving spouse, partner, child, parent or the executor of the veteran’s estate. However, the requirement is that you must receive the honorable discharge and pass away due to certain conditions. This way, also make sure that you were receiving a veteran pension or disability compensation and claim open for the pension. However, these are just a few examples.
Pros and Cons of Veteran Life Insurance
Veteran life insurance death benefits are preferable for some people due to the following reasons:
- Veteran life insurance is available in all 50 countries along with Washington DC.
- The premiums are available in the same price regardless the medical or health history. That is because the Veteran life insurance premiums are based on the age-based and standard premium charts. This means that your premiums depends mainly on your age and coverage limits. However, you’ll still need to include the proof of insurability.
- The riders are available for free within the Veteran life insurance policies that includes the accelerated death benefits.
- There is no maximum age for coverage. The policies are renewable and can be extended as long as you pay the premium. Nevertheless, the cost will increase as you grow older and older.
On the other world, the veteran life insurance with the death benefits are not always a good choice if it doesn’t meet your need most. Below are the reasons why people need to search for another choice elsewhere.
- In fact, veteran life insurance that provide death benefits are available only for military members who are in active duty, reserve, or retired military as well as cadets, certain volunteers, members and the veteran’s families. Keep in mind that civilian cannot purchase the veteran life insurance coverage.
- There are only two riders available while the options offered to customize the policy are also limited.
- The accelerated benefits require a prognosis of terminal sickness at which the veteran will have nine or less to remain living. In this case, many other life insurance allows for 12 or 24 months diagnosis.
- The last reason why people do not prefer veteran life insurance death benefits is the fact that the insurance has no cash value. If you only knew, veteran life insurance never builds cash value. They don’t either pay out the cash value to policy holders.
Customer Service
Veteran life insurance comes with the best customer service that is always ready for those want to apply for the insurance coverage and finally purchase the policies as a military member. As you can change your policies like adding more coverage or changing the beneficiaries, you’ll need to go searching for SGLI online Enrollment System (SOES) on milConnect.
If you have some additional questions related with the veteran life insurance, you can directly contact the office of Servicemember’s Group Life Insurance at 1-800-419-1473. Optionally, you can also send an email to the Prudential Insurance Company along with your questions at [email protected]
Complaint Index
More importantly, you’ll need to know the veteran life insurance complaint index issued by the national Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC). This complaint index represents the insurance company’s performance in receiving the customer complaints throughout the year according to the market share as well as the company size.
In this regards, the veteran life insurance has an average complaint index adjusted to 1.00. This way, an index above 1.00 indicates that the insurance company receives more complaints than expected. Meanwhile, if the complaint index is above 1.00, that means that the insurance company receives only a fewer complaints than expected.
Veteran life insurance policies are underwritten by a commercial life insurance, Prudential. This way, the company has 1.15 complaint index in 2020 with the total complaints 24. A year before, this company’s complaint index was 0.74 and in 2018, they receive only 0.72.
These results show that Prudential receive more complaints as it has a higher complaint index.
Third Party Ratings
Third part ratings are regarded as the good way to gauge the veteran life insurance company’s performance. The ratings analyze the things such as the consumer’s satisfaction and financial stability. In this regards, AM Best is considered the best and biggest option that provides the most trusted third-party scores based on the financial strengths.
AM Best demonstrates the confidence in a life insurance company to remain stable and financially solvent in a later time.
In this regards, Prudential currently got A+ score which means that it has strong financial stability. This is the second highest ratings offered. It allows the policy holders to pay the benefits.
Cancellation Policy
Cancellation policy is the last but not least thing to know about the veteran life insurance death benefits in our review. This way, you can cancel the veteran life insurance coverage any time. Considering that the coverage is renewable, they don’t offer cash value. This means that you don’t have to worry too much about paying the surrender fee. However, you won’t either get a refund on any of your premiums paid if you decline your coverage.
Conclusion
Overall, it is finally concluded that veteran life insurance death benefits will be available only for veteran or those who are working as administrator in veteran estate. There are many available plans offered while the riders are available only in limited number.
