Three Life Insurance Considerations When Marrying Someone in the Military

Marriage is a joyful occasion, but it is one that comes with a lot of planning. Not only is there the wedding itself, but there are all the practicalities of joining two individuals into one household: determining whether to merge bank accounts; buying a home; and thinking about long-term goals for the family, among others. When you marry into the military, there are additional factors to consider, like deployment and training schedules, getting enrolled in the Defense Enrollment Eligibility Reporting System (DEERS) for health care and base access, and wading through estate planning documents like powers of attorney and advance directives. It is also very important to update beneficiaries on any existing life insurance policies and benefits with the military. This does not happen automatically just because a spouse is enrolled in DEERS. And the decisions and tasks don’t just end there.

While it is always a good idea to assess your life insurance policies when you experience a big life change (like getting married or having a child), things deviate from the norm when your spouse is on active duty. Your military spouse’s service-provided Servicemember’s Group Life Insurance (SGLI) can cover a lot of expenses should the worst happen — and as a bonus, enrollment is automatic — but it may not be enough to fully cover your new family’s expenses should you need it.

Keep in mind that, beyond traditional life insurance, there are other death benefits that survivors receive if a servicemember dies on active duty and their death is determined to be “in the line of duty,” such as the Survivor Benefit Plan, death gratuity, and (possibly) survivor benefits from the VA. However, these benefits vary based on the servicemember’s years of service and pay grade at their time of death. It is very important to understand these benefits and not to overestimate service benefits when evaluating the needs of the family.

When marrying into the military, make sure you know what additional life insurance coverage you might need to protect your family and your future in any event.

1. You may need coverage beyond what is offered by SGLI.

SGLI may be enough for single, active duty servicemembers without dependents, since it provides up to $500,000 worth of life insurance for their beneficiary. However, military service doesn’t last forever, and establishing the guarantee of future insurability through an additional insurance policy may be an important consideration to address future coverage needs or a potential change in the servicemember’s health status down the road.

Further, once you get married, have children, or own property with a mortgage balance, it’s past time to consider additional coverage, as $500,000 may not go as far as you think. Marriage means shared financial responsibility, and life insurance is critical to maintaining financial security in the future – if anything happens to one of you, the other can rely on a life insurance payout to make ends meet until determining their new normal. Speak with your future spouse about your individual income needs (i.e., the amount of money that each of you would require to maintain your standard of living without income from the other) to ensure that your new family will be adequately covered in any situation.

You can get a rough estimate of your life insurance needs by subtracting your debts from your assets. For example, if you and your spouse owe $400,000 on your mortgage but only have $50,000 in savings, you’d want at least $350,000 in life insurance so that the surviving spouse isn’t on the hook for a mortgage they cannot afford. If only the servicemember works, you’ll want to factor in additional income for the survivor, should the servicemember be the one to pass away.

2. Be wary of joint life insurance policies.

Some life insurance companies offer joint life insurance policies for married couples. When looking into a joint policy, be sure to check the fine print for any war, terrorism, or aviation clauses that could apply to the servicemember. These clauses prevent the payout of the death benefit if the insured were to pass away in an act of war or terrorism, or while in flight – which makes these policies ineffective for servicemembers where war, terrorism, and aircraft are parts of the job.

Also keep in mind that joint policies are often “second to die” products, meaning that they only pay out a death benefit after the death of both insured parties. This may be a cost-effective way to create an ultimate estate value for the couple and pass along money to surviving children or other beneficiaries, but it does not provide any benefits to a surviving spouse. For this reason, individual life insurance for both spouses, tailored to the specific needs of each insured, often results in a more efficient life insurance strategy.

3. Stay-at-home spouses need life insurance too.

While roughly half of military spouses are not active in the workforce, non-income-earning spouses still need life insurance coverage to compensate for the substantial support they provide at home. If the servicemember has SGLI coverage, their military spouse can get up to $100,000 of low-cost coverage through Family Servicemembers’ Group Life Insurance (FSGLI) without proof of insurability. However, this coverage is only convertible to whole life policies when the servicemember leaves service, and is not convertible to any type of low-cost term life insurance. With the average contributions of a stay-at-home parent coming to over $175,00 per year, FSGLI doesn’t provide nearly enough coverage. Establishing additional protection for them, then, would have multiple advantages.

When child care is involved, expenses can easily exceed many thousands of dollars per month, and the servicemember themselves would still have ongoing work to accomplish in addition to caring for their children. Even if extended family members are available for support, the financial impacts of a stay-at-home spouse’s passing can be severe.