Almost nobody covers it in out-processing: the life insurance that protected you through your entire career runs on a clock the day you separate. Here's how the window actually works — in plain English, with every number sourced.
The Transition Window is an independent educational publication dedicated to helping people navigate life's biggest transitions with clarity, evidence, and empathy.
Days after separation. Source: VA.gov — Veterans' Group Life Insurance
Every guide we publish begins with a real question. Pick the one that sounds like yours.
The allowance is real — and smaller than most families expect. What it pays, who qualifies, and what's left over.
Read the guide →Both are reasonable choices — for different people at different ages and health situations. A side-by-side without the sales pitch.
Read the guide →A past decline is not a permanent verdict. How underwriting differs by carrier, and what "no-medical-exam" really means.
Read the guide →We organize everything around the moments that change your plans — not around product names. Insurance is one of several things worth understanding in each of them.
What happens to my SGLI? Is VGLI worth it? What are the deadlines? What does civilian coverage look like?
How much coverage do we need? Whole or term? What about the kids?
How do I keep a mortgage from becoming my family's burden?
Final expenses, income replacement, and planning that respects a fixed budget.
Denied before? Diabetes, VA disability, PTSD, a cancer history — which doors are actually still open?
Final expenses, beneficiaries, estate basics, and leaving things in order.
Two programs come up in nearly every conversation about a veteran's final expenses: the VA burial allowance and Veterans' Group Life Insurance. Both are valuable. Both are widely misunderstood. Here is what each one does — and doesn't do — with the numbers straight from the source.
For non-service-connected deaths on or after October 1, 2025, the VA pays up to $1,002 toward burial and funeral expenses, plus a separate $1,002 plot-interment allowance if the veteran isn't buried in a national cemetery. Recent National Funeral Directors Association figures put the median funeral with viewing and burial in the high-$7,000s to mid-$8,000s before cemetery costs — full-service burial commonly lands in the $10,000–$15,000 range once the plot, grave opening, and marker are added. Families often cover the difference themselves.
It's also a reimbursement with eligibility conditions: the veteran generally must have been receiving VA pension or compensation, or have died while hospitalized by the VA, among other criteria. Some families won't qualify. Knowing this ahead of time is simply good planning.
Source: U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs — Burial Benefits (benefits.va.gov)Veterans' Group Life Insurance is group term coverage whose premiums increase every five years as you age. Coverage maximums for SGLI and VGLI rose to $500,000 in March 2023 under the Supporting Families of the Fallen Act. The VA's own guidance notes that converting to a permanent plan with a private insurer may make sense if you want coverage that doesn't expire, a premium that doesn't climb, or features such as loan or cash value — and that there are specific time limits on when you can convert.
VGLI also has no living-benefit provision, so there's no built-in way to access part of the benefit after a terminal diagnosis. Many private policies include one; terms vary by carrier.
Source: U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs — Converting Term Insurance to a Permanent Policy (benefits.va.gov)| VGLI (group term) | Final expense whole life (private) | |
|---|---|---|
| Duration | Group term coverage; renewable in five-year age brackets | Permanent — stays in force for life as long as premiums are paid |
| Premiums | Increase every five years as you move into a new age bracket | Level-premium options fix your rate at the age you enroll |
| Health questions | None if you apply within 240 days of separation — a genuine advantage if service left you with health conditions | Underwriting varies by carrier; many plans use health questions rather than a medical exam |
| Living benefit | No accelerated-benefit provision | Many plans allow early access to part of the benefit after a qualifying terminal diagnosis; terms vary by carrier |
| Cash value | None — the VA cites this as a reason some veterans consider converting | Whole life builds cash value over time; details vary by carrier and plan |
| Death benefit | Paid to your named beneficiary; generally income-tax-free | Paid to your named beneficiary; generally income-tax-free |
Figures sourced from benefits.va.gov — burial benefits and benefits.va.gov — term conversion. Private policy availability, premiums, and features vary by carrier, state, age, and health classification.
Every guide ends the same way: if it raised questions about your own situation, a free, no-pressure coverage review is available whenever you're ready. And if you're not — the information above is yours to keep.
We don't publish praise. We publish the sentence a reader said when something finally clicked — because that sentence usually teaches the next reader too.
"I didn't know I had 240 days."
A Fort Cavazos-area veteran assumed his coverage decision had to happen before his last day in uniform. Learning how the post-separation windows actually work gave him time to compare instead of guessing.
"I thought I'd been permanently denied coverage."
One decline, years ago, and she'd stopped looking. Underwriting standards differ carrier to carrier — and options exist specifically for people who've been declined before.
"I finally understood the difference."
Group term versus whole life had always sounded like jargon. Seeing the two side by side — including where each one genuinely wins — turned a confusing choice into a clear one.
If you leave better informed than when you arrived, we've done our job.
Everything we publish lives at one of six permanent desks. Each desk holds itself to the same standard: cited, plain-English, and honest about trade-offs.
SGLI, VGLI, the separation clock, and the financial decisions of leaving service.
Coverage for the people who depend on you — new parents, caregivers, and single-income households.
Final expenses, beneficiaries, and leaving your affairs the way you'd want them found.
Term, whole life, underwriting, riders — the vocabulary, translated.
Red flags, high-pressure tactics, and how to verify anyone who wants to sell you anything.
The data behind the guidance — sourced from VA.gov, SSA, CMS, NAIC, and state insurance departments.
Most people don't need more advertisements. They need better information. Transition Window was created to help veterans, families, and retirees understand their options before making important financial decisions. We're independent, education-first, and committed to making complicated topics easier to understand.
I believe people make better financial decisions when they understand their options.
Before entering the insurance industry, I spent more than a decade building my career around one simple idea: listening to people's stories. As a photographer, filmmaker, and marketing professional, I learned that trust isn't earned by talking the most — it's earned by listening first.
Today, I bring that same philosophy to life insurance. As an independent licensed agent, my role isn't to steer people toward one company or one product. It's to help them understand what's available, answer their questions honestly, and help them choose coverage that fits their lives. I'm just helping protect different things now.
— Lorenzo Marez, Editor
Early in my insurance career, I saw firsthand what happens when trust becomes secondary to sales. The product was never broken — some of the people selling it were. That experience convinced me people deserve something better: honest education, ethical guidance, and recommendations built around their needs, not quotas. It shaped the standard behind everything published here: education always comes before application.
Independent access Mutual of Omaha · Aetna · Transamerica · Americo · American Amicable · Chubb · Corebridge · Ethos · and others. Every licensed agent carries a National Producer Number you can check yourself — and you should, for anyone you talk to, including me.
No obligation. No pressure. Just answers. If a guide raised questions about your own situation, this is the optional next step: a free, roughly fifteen-minute review of what you have, what the gaps look like, and what your options are — with no expectation that a conversation becomes a policy. "Free" refers to the consultation itself.