Georgia CommonsSenate · Passed · 2025-2026 Regular Session
SB 109: Life Insurance; a policy of group life insurance from excluding or restricting liability for certain deaths occurring while an individual is an active duty service member; prohibit
Last action June 1, 2025 · Effective Date
A Georgia Senate bill would stop group life insurance policies from denying payouts when a service member dies on active duty, unless the death was caused by war.
The summaries below were written by an AI model (claude-sonnet-5) from the text of the bill and are not part of it. Quote the text, not the summary. The stored text is the Enrolled version, the latest the General Assembly's website lists.
In plain language
Under current Georgia law (O.C.G.A. § 33-25-5), most individual life insurance policies can only exclude coverage for specific listed circumstances, such as war, aviation, hazardous jobs, or early suicide, but group life insurance policies have been exempt from those restrictions entirely. This bill narrows that exemption for group policies. The bill adds a new subsection (d) saying no group life insurance policy sold in Georgia can exclude or restrict payment for a death that happens while the insured person is a service member of the regular or reserve armed forces, unless that death results directly or indirectly from war. The rest of the group insurance exemption stays in place for other situations. The change would take effect the first day of the month after the Governor signs it or it becomes law without a signature.
What the bill does
- Adds a new rule (O.C.G.A. § 33-25-5(d)) barring group life insurance policies from excluding payouts for deaths of active or reserve service members, except deaths caused by war.
- Keeps the existing exemption of group life insurance from the general list of allowed exclusions (war, aviation, hazardous jobs, overseas residence, early suicide) for everything other than the new service-member protection.
- Preserves the Commissioner of Insurance's existing authority to allow any policy provision that is more favorable to the policyholder than what the law requires.
- Sets the effective date as the first day of the month after the Governor signs the bill or it becomes law without a signature.
Who it affects
Service members in the regular or reserve components of the U.S. armed forces who are covered by group life insurance, their beneficiaries, and the insurance companies that write group life policies in Georgia.
Why it matters
Families of service members who die while on active or reserve duty, other than as a result of war, would be guaranteed a payout under group life insurance even if the policy's fine print tried to exclude military-status deaths, closing a gap that previously applied only to individual policies.
Key provisions
- Section 1 amends O.C.G.A. § 33-25-5 and adds subsection (d), prohibiting group life insurance policies from excluding coverage for a service member's death unless it results from war.
- Section 1 also revises subsection (c) to note that the group insurance exemption from the general exclusion rules now applies 'except as stated in subsection (d)'.
- Section 1 renumbers the prior subsection (d) as (e), keeping the Commissioner's power to approve policy terms more favorable than the statute requires.
- Section 2 sets the effective date as the first day of the month following the bill's approval by the Governor or its becoming law without approval.
- Section 3 repeals any conflicting laws.
From the bill
“No policy of group life insurance shall be delivered or issued for delivery in this state if it contains a provision which excludes or restricts liability for death occurring while the insured is a service member of the regular or reserve component of the armed forces of the United States”
Status timeline
- Effective Date
- Act 75
- Senate Date Signed by Governor (Senate)
- Senate Sent to Governor (Senate)
- House Passed/Adopted (House)
- House Third Readers (House)
- House Committee Favorably Reported (House)
- House Second Readers (House)
Show full history (15 actions)
- House First Readers (House)
- Senate Passed/Adopted By Substitute (Senate)
- Senate Third Read (Senate)
- Senate Read Second Time (Senate)
- Senate Committee Favorably Reported By Substitute (Senate)
- Senate Read and Referred (Senate)
- Senate Hopper (Senate)
Sponsors
- Ed Harbison (D, SD-15)
- Larry Walker, III (R, SD-20)
- Chuck Payne (R, SD-54)
- Tonya Anderson (D, SD-43)
- Randy Robertson (R, SD-29)
- Sally Harrell (D, SD-40)
- Nan Orrock (D, SD-36)
- Michael 'Doc' Rhett (D, SD-33)
- Elena Parent (D, SD-44)
- Josh McLaurin (D, SD-14)
- Kenya Wicks (D, SD-34)
- RaShaun Kemp (D, SD-38)
- Randal Mangham (D, SD-55)
- Nabilah Parkes (D, SD-7)
- Nikki Merritt (D, SD-9)
- Sheikh Rahman (D, SD-5)
- Freddie Powell Sims (D, SD-12)
- Kay Kirkpatrick (R, SD-32)
- Sonya Halpern (D, SD-39)
- Kim Jackson (D, SD-41)
- Brandon Beach (R, SD-21)
- John Albers (R, SD-56)
- Russ Goodman (R, SD-8)
- Sam Watson (R, SD-11)
- Ben Watson (R, SD-1)
- Harold Jones II (D, SD-22)
- Carden Summers (R, SD-13)
- David Lucas (D, SD-26)
- Donzella James (D, SD-28)
- Gail Davenport (D, SD-17)
- Eddie Lumsden (R, HD-12)
Votes
- Senate voteMarch 6, 2025
53 yea, 0 nay (1 not voting, 2 excused)
- House voteMarch 18, 2025
172 yea, 0 nay (3 not voting, 5 excused)
Topics
- life insurance
- military and veterans
- insurance regulation
- service member benefits