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Guest Post – Servicemember’s Group Life Insurance (SGLI) and an Important Note Regarding Individual Disability Insurance Eligibility
Understanding the value of maintaining life insurance to protect loved ones, the military makes group term life insurance available under the Servicemember’s Group Life Insurance (SGLI) program to the following service members:
- Active duty
- Ready Reservists or National Guard who are assigned to a unit and scheduled to perform at least 12 periods of inactive training per year
- Commissioned Members of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Public Health Service
- Cadets or Midshipman of the U.S. military academies
- Members of the Reserve Officer Training Corps engaged in authorized training and practice cruises
If you are on this list, at the end of this article provides a link on how to enroll. This coverage is not free as you must pay a monthly premium. This article will provide you the information you need to make an informed decision about life insurance.
SGLI is group term life insurance which means it will pay your beneficiary, a person or entity you choose, who will suffer a financial loss in the event of your death. If you can’t think of anyone, for example if you are single with no dependents, you can stop reading because you probably don’t need life insurance. However, if you are married with children, mortgage, etc., this protection is extremely important. Financial planning calculators indicate that an insured individual should maintain 7-10 times their annual income in life insurance until their youngest child is 25 years old.
SGLI provides up to $400,000 of coverage regardless of health and age for $24 per month. A similar private policy from the open market issued on a 30-year-old non-smoker will cost between $22-$32 per month, so the SGLI policy is competitively priced. This is because most active duty military are young, healthy and retire fairly young so the liability for the insurance company, Prudential, is mitigated.
Upon separation from service, SGLI can be converted to Veterans Group Life Insurance (VGLI) within one year and 120 days from separation. If done within 240 days of separation, no health qualification is required. Thereafter you must meet good health standards. Unlike SGLI, VGLI is not competitively priced and rates are determined by age and increase in five-year increments. A $400,000 VGLI policy is $40 per month between ages 30-34, $68 per month at age 40, $144 per month at age 50 and increases every five years to $1840 per month at age 75. Similar individual policies are approximately 60% of the cost of VGLI but you must qualify medically.
Taking into consideration the incomes of most military physicians and dentists, not only is SGLI inadequate in terms of need but it can lead to providing a false sense of security and result in the postponement of establishing an adequate personal term insurance program early in one’s military career before the development of health issues, nicotine use, avocations, or deployment. The only exclusions on individual life insurance policies are suicide during the first two years so war is covered but you cannot initiate coverage if you are stationed outside the country or have received orders to do so. Once again, the sooner you apply for coverage the wiser.
It is prudent to examine your individual life insurance options sooner rather than later. Please contact our office with any questions and don’t forget to ask about the disability insurance discount for new policies.
Important Note Regarding Eligibility for Individual Disability Insurance
Receiving orders for deployment outside the USA will prevent you from being able to apply for a non-cancelable and guaranteed renewable to age 65 policy until you return to the USA. This would mean paying a higher rate for the duration of your career. Since OCONUS PCS orders are given when you are at the end of training, it is prudent to explore establishing coverage prior to that time period. Avoid this potential pitfall and others by working with us and our extensive experience with military physicians and dentists today.
Andy G. Borgia CLU
D.K. Unger
888-934-4637
858-523-7518
SGLI Online Enrollment System (SOES) – Life Insurance https://www.benefits.va.gov/INSURANCE/SOES.asp
SOES is the Servicemembers’ Group Life Insurance (SGLI) On-Line Enrollment System. It replaces the paper-based SGLI/Family SGLI (FSGLI) enrollment, maintains elections and beneficiary information, and provides 24/7 self-service access to SGLI information. SGLI provides insurance coverage to eligible members of the active and reserve components.
Navy CBD Product Ban Expanded to Include Lotions, Topical Applications
Here’s a link to this Navy article:
CBD Product Ban Expanded to Include Lotions, Topical Applications
Support the Blog by Donating to My Brother’s Run Across the US to Fight Cancer – Run Forrest, Run!
My brother Jarad is famous for having run every street and alley in Washington DC:
A DC Man Ran Every Single Street (and Alley) in DC
He scored a sabbatical from his teaching job and will be running across the entire US, Forrest Gump style, to fight cancer. If you’ve ever appreciated the blog, you can show it by donating to his cause here:
Finance Friday Articles
Here are my favorites this week:
How Should You Invest in Real Estate?
Recommendations From a Financial Advisor
Here are the rest of the articles:
5 Steps To Winning at Personal Finance
Envisioning a post-pandemic future
How Do Social Security Inflation Adjustments Work?
Learning From Our Biggest Mistakes in Real Estate Investing
Much Appreciated – A Discussion of Capital Gains Tax Rates
My Strategy For Dealing With FOMO
No, Robinhood Traders Aren’t Affecting the Stock Market
Stealth Wealth and Financial Independence: A Q&A with PoF
Term Life Insurance: What You Need to Know Before You Buy
The 2 Variables That Drive Stock Prices
The Case For a Post-Covid Spending Boom
The Do’s and Don’ts of Physician Contract Reviews
Three Limiting Beliefs Stopping you From Investing in Real Estate
Top 5 Reasons Your Doctor Has a Side Hustle
Using A Family Dynasty 529 Plan For Multigenerational College Planning
Defense Innovation Unit Teaching Artificial Intelligence to Detect Cancer
Here’s a link to some cool work your Medical Corps colleagues are doing:
Defense Innovation Unit Teaching Artificial Intelligence to Detect Cancer
Military Death Benefits – Beyond SGLI
It is a little morbid to think about, but we’re all going to die. This means we all need to plan for it.
Everyone knows about life insurance, but what else does your family get if you die while in the military? Without knowing the answer to this question, it is impossible to execute a complete plan in the event of your death.
Here is a quick summary of the major benefits your family would receive if you died while in the military:
Servicemember’s Group Life Insurance (SGLI) – Most know this as the military life insurance policy. It pays up to $400,000, although you can reduce this amount if you want.
Death Gratuity – This is a tax free $100,000 payment that does to the beneficiary of your choice.
Casualty Assistance Officer (CAO) – Your next of kin gets assigned a CAO to help them apply for benefits.
Dependency and Indemnity Compensation (DIC) – This pays a monthly, tax free allowance of $1,283.11 to the spouse and an additional $317.87 per child under age 18. If you have at least one child, you get another $270 per month for two years. The rates are adjusted annually for inflation. In addition, depending on their income, some surviving parents could receive this.
Survivor Benefit Program (SBP) – The SBP pays a monthly benefit equal to 55% of the service member’s retirement pay if they were retired at 100% disability at the time of their death. It is reduced dollar-for-dollar by the amount of DIC the spouse receives.
Burial Benefits – You’d get some burial expenses and entitlements from the VA.
Fry Scholarship – The Marine Gunnery Sergeant John David Fry Scholarship provides Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits to the children and surviving spouses of Servicemembers who died in the line of duty while on active duty after September 10, 2001. Eligible beneficiaries attending school may receive up to 36 months of benefits at the 100% level.
Survivors’ and Dependents’ Educational Assistance (DEA) – The DEA Program offers education and training opportunities to eligible dependents of Veterans who are permanently and totally disabled due to a service-related condition or of Veterans who died while on active duty or as a result of a service-related condition.
Other Scholarships – Check the Fisher House Foundation’s scholarship search tool.
Commissary and Exchange Shopping Privileges – These continue.
VA Home Loans – Eligibility for these remains.
TRICARE – Your family can continue to use Tricare as usual for three years. After three years, coverage for children doesn’t change—they are covered as “active duty family members” until they age out of TRICARE or lose eligibility for other reasons. Coverage for surviving spouses changes to that of a retired family member.
As you can see, there are quite a lot of death benefits besides SGLI. Make sure take these into account when figuring out your estate plan.
Associate Director for Strategy and Operations – NMRTC Portsmouth – O4
The Director of Strategy and Operations (DSO) at NMRTC Portsmouth seeks qualified applicants from all Corps at the O-4 level for the position of Associate DSO. The position announcement is here. Candidates should submit the following documentation by email to john.w.roman4.mil < at > mail.mil no later than 15 Sept 2020.
- Any combination of, but no more than three total, Fitness Reports or letters of reference.
- CV, BIO, last 3 years of PRIMS Data.
- 1 page letter of intent/motivational statement.
- Director’s endorsement.
- Detailer concurrence if outside NMCP candidate.
V/R,
John W. Roman MD, FAAD
LCDR, MC, USN
Director of Strategy and Operations
Director of HELP (Health Experts Online Portal)
Office Phone: 757-953-7217
Help Us With Recruiting Efforts – Faces of the Fleet and Magazine/Journal Articles
We at the Corps Chief’s Office are looking for some assistance with our recruiting of both practicing physicians and HPSP Students. We have two projects that I am hoping you could assist with:
- We are trying to put together a physician specific “Faces of the Fleet” video project to highlight some physicians with unique stories and insight. We have created a 2 page document explaining the project and asking some questions of Navy Physicians that we are hoping to spread throughout the MC and get some stories that we can use. Please disseminate this document to anyone you think might be interested and have them email the contact person, LCDR Jennifer Eng-Kulawy, Jennifer.k.engkulawy.mil@mail.mil if they are interested in participating.
- We are looking to showcase the unique capabilities and opportunities that physicians have in the Navy by writing a series of articles called “5 things you didn’t know about being a Navy _____.” As MC Officers, you have the inside knowledge about your communities and unique opportunities that specialists like you enjoy. Please send us a short write up of 5 things that you’d like your civilian counterparts to know about your specialty and the amazing things that you do in the Navy. Also, if there any known magazines or journals that might be interested in type of piece, please let us know so our PAO can contact them when the article is complete. Even if there are no journals/magazines that you can think of, we still plan on using these articles on our social media accounts to showcase our incredible specialties. Our tentative goal is to have this completed by the end of the fiscal year but if you need more time, please feel free to contact LCDR Jennifer Eng-Kulawy, Jennifer.k.engkulawy.mil@mail.mil and let her know. For reference, this is the general type of article that we are looking for: https://entomologytoday.org/2014/01/08/five-things-you-never-knew-about-u-s-navy-entomology/
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact LCDR Jennifer Eng-Kulawy, Jennifer.k.engkulawy.mil@mail.mil and she will be happy to answer your questions.
FY21 Navy Medicine Leadership Catalog
Please see the message from the MC Career Planner:
Colleagues,
Here is the long awaited FY21 MC Leadership Catalog. Please spread far and wide. A few notes:
- I am not accepting proxy nominations. Officers must self-nominate.
- Many of these courses are virtual, and some are not being held at the present time. Given the fluidity of the COVID restrictions, I will queue nominations for next available courses.
Please let me know if you have questions or concerns.
V/r,
Anthony Keller, MD, FACC
CAPT, MC, USN
Navy Medical Corps Career Planner
Bureau of Medicine and Surgery (BUMED)
Office of the Chief, Medical Corps (M00C1), 1NW148C
7700 Arlington Blvd
Falls Church, VA 22042-5135
Office: (703)681-8937
Cell: (619)787-2929
DSN: 761-8937
Joel Schofer's Career Planning Blog 