VA Life Insurance

VALife and what replaced S-DVI

If somebody told you to apply for S-DVI, they sent you to a door that closed on December 31, 2022. Here is what took its place, who qualifies, and the one limit you must understand before you sign.

VA life insurance on VA.gov
Veterans Crisis Line — dial 988, then press 1. Text 838255. Chat at veteranscrisisline.net. TTY 711 then 988, or 1-800-799-4889. 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. You do not have to be enrolled in VA benefits or health care to connect.
Read this first. VALife is guaranteed acceptance. No medical exam. A service-connected rating of 0 percent is enough to qualify. But the full payout does not start the day you sign. The face amount takes effect two years after you enroll. If you die inside those two years, VA pays your beneficiary the premiums you paid plus interest — not the $40,000, not any part of it. I am telling you that up front because a Family that plans a funeral around money that is not there yet gets hurt twice.
Start here

VALife — who actually qualifies

Broader than most people are told.

  • Veterans age 80 or under with a VA service-connected disability rating of 0% to 100%. A 0% rating qualifies. You do not need a compensable rating.
  • There is no deadline to apply if you are 80 or under.
  • Age 81 and older: you may still qualify if you applied for disability compensation before turning 81, were granted a rating afterward, and you apply within 2 years of being notified of that rating.
  • No medical exam. No health questions standing between you and the policy.
Whole life insurance, up to $40,000, sold in $10,000 increments. You pick the amount. Apply at va.gov/life-insurance/options-eligibility/valife.
★ 0 percent is a qualifying rating.
The limit

The two-year wait, stated plainly

This is the part people find out about too late.

The death benefit does not grow during the first two years. There is no partial payout, no sliding scale, nothing building toward the face amount. For two years from the date you enroll, the benefit is the premiums you paid plus interest. The full face amount takes effect two years after enrollment, as long as premiums were paid during that time.
  • Cash value is a separate thing. It begins to accumulate after the two years.
  • VALife does not offer loans against the policy.
  • VALife is whole life. VGLI, further down this page, is term insurance with no cash value. They are different products — do not compare them on price alone.
  • VA states there are no premium waivers in the VALife program.
★ Coverage starts counting the day you enroll.
Closed door

S-DVI, and the trap if you still hold one

Service-Disabled Veterans Insurance — the old "RH" policy.

  • S-DVI stopped accepting new applications after December 31, 2022. VALife replaced it on January 1, 2023. If somebody is still telling you to file for S-DVI, they are working off old paper.
  • If you already have S-DVI, you can keep it. Nothing forces you off it.
If you hold S-DVI, do not apply for VALife without calling VA first. The rule that let you keep S-DVI while you waited out VALife's two-year period required applying by December 31, 2025, and that date has passed. Apply now and your S-DVI ends when VALife is approved — leaving you two years with no death benefit, only return of premiums plus interest. On top of that, the basic S-DVI policy carries a premium waiver for totally disabled veterans. VALife has no premium waiver. Switch, and a totally disabled veteran gives up the waiver, starts paying, and is uninsured for two years.
Next step, not a dead end: call VA at 800-669-8477 and make them walk you through your own policy before you sign anything. Details at va.gov/life-insurance/options-eligibility/s-dvi.
★ Call before you switch. Not after.
Hard deadline

VGLI — the window that never reopens

Different program, and the one with a clock on it.

VGLI — Veterans' Group Life Insurance — lets you continue your SGLI coverage as term life insurance. You qualify if you are within 1 year and 120 days of any of these:

  • An active-duty period of 31 days or more
  • Retiring or being released from the Ready Reserve or National Guard
  • Assignment to the Individual Ready Reserve (IRR) or the Inactive National Guard (ING)
  • Being placed on the Temporary Disability Retirement List (TDRL)
  • You had part-time SGLI and suffered a service-connected injury or disability that disqualified you from standard premium rates
You do not have to leave the military to be eligible. A Guard or Reserve Soldier rotating to the IRR is still serving and is still on the clock. Miss 1 year and 120 days and the right is gone permanently — it does not reopen.
  • Apply within 240 days of separation and you do not have to prove good health.
  • After 240 days you must submit evidence that you are in good health, and VA can turn you down. The penalty for waiting is rejection, not paperwork.
  • Coverage runs $10,000 to $500,000, generally up to the SGLI amount you held at separation. You keep it as long as you pay the premiums.
  • Premiums are not fixed. They are based on your age and coverage amount and step up as you move into each higher age bracket. Do not budget on today's rate.
The increase right nobody tells you about. If you have less than $500,000 of VGLI, you can increase it by $25,000 one year after you get VGLI, and then every 5 years after that, up to $500,000. No medical questions are asked. Increases are available until you turn 60. Veterans who never hear this stay underinsured for life. va.gov/life-insurance/options-eligibility/vgli
★ 1 year and 120 days. Mark it today.
Family

FSGLI — your children are already covered

Family Servicemembers' Group Life Insurance, for the Family of a service member with full-time SGLI.

  • Dependent children are insured automatically for $10,000 each, at no cost to the service member. Nothing to buy. Families have failed to file a claim because nobody ever told them the coverage existed.
  • Spouse coverage is available up to $100,000 in $10,000 increments, and cannot exceed the service member's own SGLI amount.
  • Spouse coverage is not free. The service member pays a premium, and that premium rises as the spouse ages.
120 days, and the right is gone. When the service member separates, or on divorce, or when SGLI ends, the spouse has 120 days to convert FSGLI to a permanent individual policy. After 120 days that right is gone — and a spouse with any health history loses insurability with it.
va.gov/life-insurance/options-eligibility/fsgli
★ Free coverage you have to know about to claim.
Most missed

VMLI — the age cutoff that ends it

Veterans' Mortgage Life Insurance. It pays your mortgage lender directly.

  • Up to $200,000, paid straight to the lender on the home.
  • You must have a severe service-connected disability, have received a Specially Adapted Housing (SAH) grant, hold title to the home, have a mortgage on it, and be under 70 years old.
  • You must apply before your 70th birthday. After that the benefit is gone for good. There is no late path.
va.gov/life-insurance/options-eligibility/vmli · questions: 800-669-8477
★ Check the birthday before you check anything else.
Who to call. 800-669-8477 — VALife, S-DVI and VMLI. 800-419-1473 — VGLI, and SGLI and FSGLI claims. Start page for all of it: va.gov/life-insurance, and the full program list is at va.gov/life-insurance/options-eligibility — ask about TSGLI, traumatic injury protection, while you are on the phone.

I am not printing premium rates here. Rates change, and I will not have you budget off a number that has moved. Get the current figure from VA at the number above or on VA's own page. The programs, the deadlines and the coverage limits on this page are the part that does not change month to month — those are what I want in your hands.