Vgli?

[Bimmerbill]

ANyone have any experience with Veterans Guaranteed Life Insurance? I retired from the Army Guard and my SGLI (Servicemans GLI) will run out shortly.

Looks like VGLI has premiums based on age. Seems more expensive than the term life insurance I've been shopping.

Are there any hidden benefits to it over say, a 20 year term policy from USAA?

The VGLI site had a pretty good needs calculator. After I added up social security for the DW & DD, survivorship for my Army pension and survivorship for my FERS pension it turns out I need a lot less insurance than I thought...

 

[Fireup2020]

I do not have answers to your specific questions, but on the VGLI note, you are only eligible to buy insurance to the dollar amount you were covered to while paying for SGLI. For example, I only carry 100K on my SGLI. In mid 2008, I will go ahead and increase it to 450K (in the event I do chose to go the VGLI route, I'll be able to buy 450K of VGLI) One of the advantages of VGLI is that there are no physicals required. Not the cheapest overall, but for some it could be the least expensive based on their circumstances.

 

[Nords]

ANyone have any experience with Veterans Guaranteed Life Insurance? I retired from the Army Guard and my SGLI (Servicemans GLI) will run out shortly.

Dumb question and I'm still learning about Reserve/NG retirements, but do you need the insurance?

IIRC a gray-area retiree can elect SBP when filing the retirement request. If you die before age 60 then the payments start with a deduction for your SBP premiums. If you reach age 60 then you get a second chance to choose or to decline SBP. This may be a Navy-only program and I'm sorry to be so vague on the details but my Reserve spouse is on travel until this weekend and she remembers this a lot better than I do. But in your case I'd be concerned about being worth more dead than alive!

If you've covered your spouse with your SBP from both DoD and FERS (and if you delay Social Security to maximize its survivor benefits for your spouse) then life insurance may be redundant-- especially if you reinvest the premiums back into your ER portfolio.

Otherwise, regardless of when the VGLI eligibility expires, I'd take the cheapest term I could find from a survivable company. USAA is probably the Vanguard of term insurance for veterans...

 

[mickeyd]

Compare rates with any other term policy but remember that the VGLI can not fail as uncle SAM will support it. LI companies can not say this, but it is rare for a LI company to fail anyway. Unless the rates are less than you can get elsewhere, and you are still in need for more LI, a good commercial company, like USAA will fit the bill.

 

[Bimmerbill]

Nords, the reserve component has the SBP too. Trouble is, my retirement check will be $680 a month, starting in 19 years (COLA adjusted at least). So my wife would only get $450 or so a month if I die before age 60.

FERS would add another $800 or so a month. SS says $1380 a month for each wife and daughter. Not sure, that sounds like a lot.

Not sure of the taxes on all of it tho.

If I run the life insurance calc at the VGLI site (and exclude my retirement accounts) I don't need much more insurance. I need none if my wife wants to work to make $20K a year.