SGLI? Other Life Insurance?

[Nomar116]

At check-in a few months ago one of the newbies beside me mentioned he wasn't enrolling in SGLI but instead took life insurance from USAA. I did a search and found that Navy Mutual (link below) used to be a pretty good alternative. I am currently paying $29/month for $400,000. I'm even beginning to wonder if life insurance is for me or not. I assume at some point in the future I will want it, and I've HEARD its cheaper to start early. I confess I know nothing about the subject and am just curious:

What are other people using? I assume alot of people, like me, havn't given it too much thought...

What resources should I use to learn more about whether life insurance is even for me in the first place?

http://www.navymutual.org/products/flexterm.htm

 

[FLYTPAY]

Are you married? Do you have any dependents?

 

[JBM]

While I don't know too much about life insurance, make sure you READ the policy before you sign. A lot of them don't cover death caused while in the military.

 

[usmarinemike]

If you're not married you proabably don't need life insurance.

You will most likely buy the insurance from some kind of broker. I cannot stress enough what I am about to say. Go to the broker educated, and in most cases know exactly what you want from him/her. If you don't, you'll walk out of there feeling great about yourself for having bought whatever it is they were selling that day, and the broker will walk out of there with a pile of money because he sold you on something with high commission. A few months down the road, you'll do some research and find out that you didn't get the best product for you and that you overpaid for what you did buy.

There's a huge pricing war right now between insurance companies not to mention it's cheaper because people are living longer. It is a great time to buy life insurance. It needs to be somewhere around six to ten times your yearly income, and it needs to be term life. The broker will try to sell you on whole life and make it look all sexy as an investment vehicle, and try to show you how it'll have cash value later. That's all fine and good, but term life is usuallly cheaper so to me it has just as much cash value now as the whole life will have later.

Here are some good links that put it all together.

Insure.com
Clark Howard's take on life insurance

If you don't know who Clark Howard is then you must not listen to talk radio. He's pretty good people.

 

[bunk22]

I use the SGLI, Navy Mutual and Gerber. I've looked into others but all laughed when I stated my occupation. Hard to get insurance. So, I've got the $400K with SGLI, $900K with Navy Mutual and $60K with Gerber. Those are the only ones I found that would cover me with what I do (SGLI aside). My wife has $900K thru Navy Mutual and $30K thru Gerber. If I die, she gets the money, if we both die, it goes to our daughter.

 

[Schnugg]

If you're not married you proabably don't need life insurance.

Not always the case.

Say you mort in a car wreck. If you have SGLI and/or supplemental insurance, your folks now have some extra money to tie up loose ends in your "absence."

You can also choose a beneficiary which could be a sibling or relative in case you die.

 

[BACONATOR]

I have the 400K through SGLI. For 30 bucks a month, why the hell wouldn't you? I don't have a whole lot of debt, so if I die my parents would each be getting the better part of 200K. It's just nice to know that everything will be taken care of if the worst should happen.

Only problem is now I always have to take a small bite of my food when I'm eating at my parent's place like an anaphylactic person..... the price we pay I suppose.

 

[MasterBates]

$400K via SGLI
$250K via NMAA

Parents get it, with the direction that the Manatee gets NOTHING. It will pay off all my debt, pay off the family farm, and give my nephews about $75K each for college.

And my parents using some of the $$ to take a vacation to Europe is also written in there where I wrote, pay this, pay that, put rest in college funds, etc.

 

[BACONATOR]

$400K via SGLI
$250K via NMAA

Parents get it, with the direction that the Manatee gets NOTHING. It will pay off all my debt, pay off the family farm, and give my nephews about $75K each for college.

And my parents using some of the $$ to take a vacation to Europe is also written in there where I wrote, pay this, pay that, put rest in college funds, etc.

This brings up a secondary question I had. How did you go about drawing up a will? Is there a cookie-cutter format I can find online? Base Legal?

 

[KBayDog]

Base Legal?

Yes.

 

[a2b2c3]

It's cheaper to get life insurance before you start flying anything. When you're a student the idiots are insurance companies think you're a smart, safe, studious person. When you start flying they think you'll die tomorrow. Therefore they charge you about twice as much for new policies then. So buy before you leave API and you'll save some money each month.

 

[HighDimension]

It's cheaper to get life insurance before you start flying anything. When you're a student the idiots are insurance companies think you're a smart, safe, studious person. When you start flying they think you'll die tomorrow. Therefore they charge you about twice as much for new policies then. So buy before you leave API and you'll save some money each month.

If you start flying after buying the policy and have an accident, wouldn't that give them a reason to refuse to pay?

 

[BACONATOR]

If you start flying after buying the policy and have an accident, wouldn't that give them a reason to refuse to pay?

If they know what they're doing, they probably have a provision in the contract to notify them if you start to engage in dangerous activities (flying included), otherwise while they may try to fight it. If it isn't in the contract then you're probably good.

 

[Tom]

Some policies have aviation clauses, just like a war clause. Just buy a policy without both in it and you're fine. Make sure to tell the agent you're working with to see if there are issues.

 

[Nomar116]

I am surprised so many of you carry such large life insurance policies. Perhaps it is much more informative to include more details such as the ones I left out.

I am single and I have no dependents. I am an only child of two parents that are long divorced. If I were to write a will, which I havn't done, I would surely leave all of my assets and policy to my mother. She could certainly use the money much more than my dad.

I have a policy for $400k with SGLI, which I consider to be MORE than enough, probably too much. The only reason I would consider using another bank such as NMCU would be because they seem to offer the same coverage at a lower rate. But, some of the points you all have made so far do hit home such as its not really that much money.

Are there signifcant diffrences between companies? I see the need to be mroe careful with a Bank to ensure you properly notify them when you begin flying (if that is required). It seems that would increase your rate whereas SGLI obviously wouldn't?