September is Life Insurance Awareness Month. Now’s a good time to learn more about how life insurance works to protect your family.
What’s the difference between individual and group life insurance?
Individual life insurance is a life insurance policy that covers you as an individual. You pay for the policy and own it. Group life insurance is life insurance for which a single contract covers a group of people. Usually, the policyowner is an employer or organization such as USBA. Because the insurance risk is spread across more people, group rates are usually lower than those for individual coverage. Typically, employer-paid group life insurance isn’t portable. In most cases, when you leave a company, you lose the coverage. It stays behind with the job. However, with USBA group life insurance, you own it and can take it with you, wherever you go.
When does my SGLI end?
Servicemembers’ Group Life Insurance (SGLI) is military group life insurance that ends 120 days after you separate or retire from military service. If you’re about to retire or transition, consider replacing your SGLI with group life insurance from USBA, a non-governmental nonprofit association. USBA also offers insurance protection for military spouses and dependents.
If you’re separating from the service, Veterans’ Group Life Insurance (VGLI) allows you to convert your SGLI coverage to a renewable term life insurance policy. However, VGLI only provides up to a maximum of $500,000 of insurance coverage, and is issued in $10,000 increments up to the amount of SGLI you had at the time of separation. USBA offers a maximum of $650,000 in coverage.1 2 USBA coverage can be used as primary or supplemental group life insurance protection.
How do I determine how much life insurance I need?
Use this Life Insurance Coverage Estimator. Once you’ve determined which policy best fits your needs, you can apply online, or call a Product Specialist at (877) 297-9235 between 9:00 am – 4:00 pm Central Time, Monday through Friday.
1 On October 17, 2022 the Supporting Families of the Fallen Act was signed into law. The legislation increased insurance coverage from $400,000 to $500,000 for Servicemembers’ Group Life Insurance (SGLI) and Veterans’ Group Life Insurance (VGLI). The increased maximum coverage is effective March 1, 2023.
2 The overall maximum coverage for each Member/Associate Member is $650,000 under all USBA-sponsored Group Life Insurance policies, with the option for those ages 69 and below, if approved, to add up to an additional $100,000 of Traditional Whole Life (G-10648-0), for a maximum of $750,000.
Uniformed Services Benefit Association (USBA) is a nonprofit Association that provides group life insurance, health insurance supplements, and other products and services to military personnel, Federal employees, National Guard and Reserve members, Veterans and their families.
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