Military life comes with a lot of moving parts, and one of the easiest to miss is the life insurance on the spouse. While a service member is covered by full-time SGLI, their husband or wife is usually covered too, through a program called Family Servicemembers’ Group Life Insurance, or FSGLI. It’s cheap, it’s simple, and it often runs in the background without anyone thinking about it.
Then the service member leaves the military, or the couple divorces, and that coverage goes away. A Military.com guide published Oct. 28, 2026, walks through what happens next. Here’s what spouses need to know, and how DFN thinks about the choices.
What FSGLI covers today
According to the VA, as of its Oct. 14, 2026 update, FSGLI covers a spouse for up to $100,000, but never more than the service member’s own SGLI coverage. Dependent children get $10,000 each, free. The service member pays the spouse’s premium through payroll deduction, and the rate rises with the spouse’s age. For $100,000 of coverage, the VA’s monthly rates include:
- Under 35: $4.00
- 40 to 44: $6.20
- 50 to 54: $13.50
- 55 to 59: $23.00
- 60 and older: the VA table tops out at $80,000 of coverage, for $32.00 a month
Two more details matter. The service member, not the spouse, is the beneficiary of FSGLI, according to the VA’s FSGLI procedural guide. And military spouses who married on or after Jan. 2, 2013, aren’t covered automatically. Their service member has to sign them up.
When it ends, and the 120-day window
Spousal coverage can end when the service member separates from the military, the couple divorces, the service member dies, or the service member elects in writing to end the spouse’s coverage or their own SGLI. When it ends in those situations, the VA’s guide says the spouse gets 120 days of free coverage.
Here’s the catch most families don’t expect. Service members can usually move their own SGLI to Veterans’ Group Life Insurance, or VGLI. Spouses can’t. The VA’s FSGLI fact sheet is blunt: “FSGLI spousal coverage cannot be converted to VGLI.”
The one conversion option, and DFN’s take on it
What a spouse can do, within those 120 days, is convert FSGLI into a permanent individual policy with a participating insurance company, without proving good health. The VA lists the steps: pick a company from its list, apply at that company’s local sales office, and bring a recent Leave and Earnings Statement showing the spousal SGLI deduction, plus a document such as a DD214, a divorce certificate, or a death certificate.
But read the fine print. The VA says the conversion has to be to a permanent policy “such as whole life,” and you can’t convert to term, variable, or universal life. Riders like accidental death coverage don’t carry over.
At DFN, our view is simple: buy term and invest the difference. Whole life bundles insurance with a savings feature and usually costs far more for the same death benefit. For most healthy spouses, a level term policy will buy much more protection for the money, and the difference can go into a retirement account or an emergency fund.
The conversion option still has one real use. If the spouse has a serious health condition, a guaranteed policy with no health questions may be the only coverage available. That’s a good reason to move early.
A plan for the 120 days
- Mark the date. Find the separation, divorce, or election date and count 120 days forward.
- Decide how much coverage you need. Think about income replacement, the mortgage, child care, and debts, not just the old $100,000 figure.
- Apply for term coverage early. Shopping in the first weeks gives you time to get an answer while the free coverage is still in force.
- Keep the conversion as a backup. If health problems make term hard to get, you’ll still have time to use the no-health-questions conversion.
- Check other coverage. A spouse’s own employer may offer group life insurance, though it usually ends when the job does.
- Get free help. Military.com points spouses to the VA’s Office of Servicemembers’ Group Life Insurance and veterans service organizations such as the DAV, VFW, and American Legion.
The Bottom Line
FSGLI is a great deal while it lasts, but it doesn’t follow a spouse out of the military, and it can’t move to VGLI. Use the 120 days wisely. For most families, that means lining up an affordable term policy before the free coverage ends, and treating the whole life conversion as a safety net for health problems, not the first choice.
Sources and Further Reading
- Military.com, Brandon Wile, “What Can a Military Spouse Do About Life Insurance When FSGLI Runs Out?” (Oct. 28, 2026)
- U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, “Family Servicemembers’ Group Life Insurance (FSGLI)” (updated Oct. 14, 2026)
- U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, FSGLI fact sheet
- U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, FSGLI Procedural Guide (version 3.3, March 2020)
- U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, “Converting Family Servicemembers’ Group Life Insurance Coverage”