Leaving the Military? The 240-Day VGLI Window, What It Costs by Age, and What a Healthy Veteran Should Do Instead

I served six years in the Army, including as a combat medic. Nobody briefed me on life insurance on the way out, and I did not think about it either. Most veterans I talk to through Watchmen of Honor tell me the same thing. So here is the calendar, the prices, and what I actually tell people.

The calendar

The 240-day window is the important one. It is the only life insurance in America that will accept you with no questions at $500,000, and it exists because the government knows some people leave the service with conditions that private carriers will rate or decline.

What VGLI costs by age

VGLI is term insurance priced by five-year age bands, and it re-prices every time you enter a new band. For $500,000 of coverage, the VA’s rate table effective July 2025 reads:

Under 40 that is a fair price. It is not a level premium, though. A 32-year-old paying $40 will pay $70 at 40, $145 at 50 and $425 at 60 for the same coverage, and a 20-year private term policy bought at 32 would have stayed at one price the whole time. Over a career, the difference for a healthy veteran can run well into six figures, which is where the “$100,000 mistake” headline comes from.

The apply-for-both strategy

This is what I tell every veteran who leaves healthy.

1. Apply for VGLI inside the 240 days. No health questions. It is your safety net, and it costs nothing to apply. Do it even if you expect private coverage to be cheaper.
2. At the same time, get underwritten for private term. Level premium, 20 or 30 years, sized to the family’s actual need. If you are healthy, the private policy will usually be less expensive than VGLI at your age band, and it will not re-price at 40.
3. Keep whichever wins, or both. If the private policy is approved at a good class, you can drop VGLI or keep a smaller amount. If underwriting surprises you, a service-connected condition you did not think about, a medication, a build, keep the VGLI. You already have it.
4. Never let both lapse at once. The private policy needs to be in force before you cancel VGLI.

Working independently matters here more than almost anywhere. Carriers underwrite service history differently. Some are indifferent to a 30 percent rating; some care a great deal about what it is for. Sleep apnea with a CPAP, PTSD that is treated and stable, a back injury that ended a career: each of these is a different answer at a different carrier. The right one says yes at a fair price.

If you leave with a disability rating

Apply for VGLI in the window regardless; it is your no-questions coverage. Then look at VALife, the VA’s guaranteed-acceptance whole life for veterans with a service-connected rating of 0 to 100 percent: up to $40,000, no health questions, with a two-year waiting period before the full benefit is payable. It is small, but it is permanent and it cannot be taken away. And still let an independent agent shop your file. A rating does not mean a private decline.

What I would do

Put two dates on your calendar the day you separate: day 120 and day 240. Apply for VGLI before the second one. Get a private term application in during the same month. Then, once coverage is settled, do what most of us never did on active duty: name a beneficiary you have actually thought about, and tell them where the policy is.