Among the seemingly unending insults that our men and women in uniform, along with low pay, terrible hours and risk that is above any other job, is the fact that they can’t buy personal life insurance if they are headed into harms way from virtually all life insurance companies, but one.

One of the top life insurance companies in the US has made it their policy to underwrite and place life insurance at the same low rates as the truck driver next door. They don’t even care if you have orders to the worst part of Afghanistan. They, and this is real, believe it is their patriotic duty to offer coverage with only two caveats.

The application and exam have to be completed before you leave US soil. I know for so many families the deployments are a hardship that is hard to measure but it is dwarfed by the hardship of a family trying to carry after losing a mother or father in combat. I may date myself here, but there is SGLI, servicemen’s group life insurance. Each member of the armed forces gets this benefit as part of their job. I may be wrong but I believe it is $400,000. That kind of military life insurance coverage is simply inadequate if you are talking about a wife and children at home.

The other caveat frankly ticks me off. While they hold themselves out as doing the patriotic thing, they won’t cover “Members of the following special forces units will not be considered for life insurance coverage: Army Special Forces and Rangers, Delta Force, Navy SEAL or Special Warfare Development Group, Marine Force Reconnaissance and Air Force Special Forces.” I like the fact that the average soldier can get coverage but it seems wrong that our best of the best, the ones that can get Osama Bin Laden, can’t get the same insurance, not even for a higher rate.

There are several companies that will offer life insurance to military personnel who don’t have current orders to a war zone. Some hedge their bet even more by saying that you have to be at a point where you can’t be deployed. But one company stands alone in offering the extra life insurance that is needed to make sure that military families don’t have financial devastation piled on top of the worst loss of their life. Remember the caveat though.

Bottom line. If you are active duty military and need life insurance to supplement what the government provides or if you’re the parent of a soldier who would buy more life insurance if he or she could afford it, give me a call or send an email. I will be glad to get you quotes and help get the coverage in place. God bless you and thank you for what you do for our country.