Best Home Insurance For Veterans and Military Members

Homeowners who are current members of the military or veterans will need to get home insurance because it's a VA mortgage loan requirement. Fortunately, homeowners insurance companies offer a variety of policy benefits and discounts particularly suited to military families.

If you are on active duty, you should just take note that homeowners insurance policies may exclude certain portions of your coverage while you're deployed. However, by choosing the right insurer or adding an endorsement to your policy, you can ensure your coverage stays in place while you're deployed.

Home insurance requirements for VA loans

Homeowners who take out VA loans are required to have a policy with hazard insurance coverage that will pay for the cost to rebuild their home, should it be damaged or destroyed. The home insurance policy should cover, at minimum, the perils named in an HO-1 insurance policy, but you should consider adding greater coverage depending on the risks of the region you live in.

And if you live in a special flood hazard area (SFHA) designated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), you'll also need to buy flood insurance to qualify for a VA loan.

Lenders for VA loans usually require you to put your insurance payment in escrow as a safeguard to ensure that insurance payments are made promptly. How this works will vary depending on your lender, but you'll typically have to pay a certain amount — often 15 months' worth of insurance bills — up front as a buffer, then continue to make monthly payments to keep the balance.

However, VA loan recipients are not required to buy private mortgage insurance. Most of the time, when you open a mortgage with a down payment of less than 20%, your lender will require you to protect the mortgage with private mortgage insurance. But the federal government guarantees VA loans, meaning you are exempt from this requirement.

Which home insurance companies offer the best rates for veterans?

Many homeowners insurance companies provide discounts or special rates just for people who have served in the military. Several military-specific insurance companies also offer low-cost policies specifically designed to fit the needs of active-duty and retired members of the military.

If you just need a basic policy, we recommend comparing quotes from military-specific insurers as well as those with veteran discounts. Each insurer has a different method of determining your rates, so some may be cheaper than others..

Military-specific home insurance companies

---

---

There are a number of military-specific insurance companies that tailor their policies and rates to fit the needs of members of the armed forces and their families. As these companies only provide services to people who have served in the military and their families, they do not provide an extra military discount.

However, annual rates from insurers that specialize in military families tend to be very competitive with other insurance companies' rates. As such, they are often the best homeowners insurance carriers for veterans or active service members.

USAA is an especially popular choice among people in the armed forces. It offers a range of financial services, including banking and credit cards, in addition to home and auto insurance.

USAA's many benefits are well-suited for people in the military. Homeowners insurance policies from USAA will cover anything you bring with you while on active duty, including your uniform. And any claim you make for your uniform or military equipment while on active duty won't be subject to a deductible, meaning you'll be reimbursed for the full cost of the lost or damaged property.

Armed Forces Insurance is a another insurer dedicated to providing coverage to military members and delivers a wide range of optional coverage options:

Armed Forces coverage is cheaper than average, but the insurer also gets more complaints than average,which could point to issues with customer service. The company also has poor reviews from customers regarding claims payouts on the Better Business Bureau.

Veteran and military family home insurance discounts

Some insurers, like Farmers, offer military discounts to current and former members of the military, although availability varies by state. Geico doesn't sell homeowners insurance directly, but many of the companies it partners with offer discounts of up to 15% to members of the military who get their homeowners insurance.

It only takes a few minutes to get a quote from each of these insurers, so it's worth doing the legwork to find the best rate for which you're eligible. The right quote could save you hundreds of dollars per year.

Other discounts and ways for military families to save on home insurance

While not exclusive to veterans and their families, many insurers offer discounts to their customers that may match or even surpass a military discount. For example, many insurers give you a significant discount if you bundle multiple insurance types from them. The most common pairing is home and auto insurance..

You can also reduce your homeowners insurance rates by making certain upgrades to your home. The exact list will vary by your insurance company, but eligible upgrades sometimes include adding on impact-resistant roofs, burglar alarms or a fire-protection sprinkler system.

Finally, you can reduce your monthly payment by increasing the deductible on your policy. However, this will result in increased costs should you ever need to make a claim, so weigh the pros and cons of doing so carefully.

Who is eligible for military-specific home insurance policies and discounts?

Every provider decides its own rules regarding eligibility. Criteria for benefits can include:

USAA, one of the most common providers of insurance to military service members and their families, offers policies to:

The criteria insurance companies use to determine eligibility change periodically, so be sure to confirm you can still get military rates on your home insurance from your insurer before moving forward. And keep in mind that these benefits are determined separately from legal benefits for veterans, such as subsidized education programs and VA medical care.

How being deployed can affect your homeowners insurance

There are two clauses that commonly appear in homeowners insurance contracts that military members, especially those for whom there's a good chance they could get deployed, need to keep an eye out for: an occupancy clause and a war zone exemption. You need to understand how each will impact your coverage should you be deployed overseas before signing an insurance contract.

Occupancy clause

Most homeowners insurance policies usually have rules regarding occupancy. Someone must be living in your home in order for it to be covered. If you are deployed and your home is vacant while you are away for a certain amount of time — it can be as little as 30 to 60 days — your policy may be void.

When choosing an insurance policy, see if you can find one without a vacancy clause or one that makes an exception for active military duty. Military-specific insurance companies like USAA or Armed Forces will likely offer this. Otherwise, you'll have to get an extra endorsement that protects your home while it is vacant.

War zone exemption

The second clause to look out for is a war zone exemption. While most homeowners insurance policies cover your belongings no matter where you are in the world, many insurers have exemptions for war zones.

In other words, with this exemption in place, if something you own is damaged while in one of these designated areas, your homeowners insurance policy won't help you replace it.

A policy bought through a military-specific insurance company like USAA won't have this exemption.

Methodology

ValuePenguin studied policy offerings from a range of insurers, as well as home insurance rates from the largest insurers in Texas.

Insurance rate data is provided by Quadrant Information Services. Rates were sourced from publicly available insurer filings and should be used for comparative purposes only.