Updated August 7, 2026. Quick answer: if the company that issued your life insurance goes insolvent, a state guaranty association steps in — up to a limit, and the limit is not the same everywhere. The number repeated almost everywhere is $300,000. It is right in thirty jurisdictions and wrong in twenty-one, and in California it is wrong in a way that costs a beneficiary sixty thousand dollars on a $300,000 policy.
California pays 80% — so a $300,000 policy protects $240,000
California is the only jurisdiction in this table that applies a percentage rather than a flat cap. Its coverage is “80% of the death benefit, capped at $300,000” — and the two conditions stack in the order that hurts. The 80% applies first; the cap applies to the result.
- A $100,000 policy is protected to $80,000.
- A $300,000 policy is protected to $240,000, not $300,000.
- A $1,000,000 policy is protected to $300,000 — here the cap binds before the percentage matters.
There is no policy size at which a Californian gets the full $300,000 that every table promises them. The coinsurance runs all the way up, and the cap sits on top of it. California’s cash-surrender and annuity coverage work the same way — 80%, then the cap.
Thirty jurisdictions match the model. Twenty-one do not.
Most states adopted the NAIC model act, which sets $300,000 death benefit · $100,000 cash surrender · $250,000 annuity · $300,000 overall per life. We recomputed the departures from the rows rather than trusting a summary, and the split is 30 exact matches, 21 departures.
The $500,000 club. Connecticut, Louisiana, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Utah, Washington, Wyoming carry an overall cap of $500,000 rather than $300,000 — and Connecticut and Washington lift every component to $500,000, not just the total. Minnesota goes to $500,000 on the death benefit but sets cash surrender at $130,000, a figure that appears nowhere else. Iowa and Virginia sit at $350,000 overall — higher than the model, lower than the club, and a number no summary table carries.
Several states are quietly more generous on one component and standard on the rest: Arkansas and South Carolina pay cash surrender at the full $300,000 rather than $100,000, and the District of Columbia and Oklahoma pay annuities at $300,000 rather than $250,000. Florida and Georgia split the annuity figure by what the annuity is doing — one number while it is accumulating, another once it is paying out.
| Jurisdiction | Death benefit | Cash surrender | Annuity | Overall cap per life | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | $300,000 | $100,000 | $250,000 | ⚠ not stated we could not reach it | source official · 2026-08-06 |
| Alaska | $300,000 | $100,000 | $250,000 | ⚠ not stated we could not reach it | source official · 2026-08-06 |
| Arizona | $300,000 | $100,000 | $250,000 | $300,000 | source statute · 2026-08-06 |
| Arkansas | $300,000 | $300,000 | $300,000 | ⚠ not stated we could not reach it | source official · 2026-08-06 |
| California | 80% of the death benefit, capped at $300,000 | 80% of the value, capped at $100,000 | 80% of present value, capped at $250,000 | $300,000 | source statute · 2026-08-06 |
| Colorado | $300,000 | $100,000 | $250,000 | $300,000 | source official · 2026-08-06 |
| Connecticut | $500,000 | $500,000 | $500,000 | $500,000 | source statute · 2026-08-06 |
| Delaware | $300,000 | $100,000 | $250,000 | $300,000 | source statute · 2026-08-06 |
| District of Columbia | $300,000 | $100,000 | $300,000 | $300,000 | source statute · 2026-08-06 |
| Florida | $300,000 | $100,000 | $250,000 deferred-annuity cash surrender; $300,000 for an annuity in benefit | $300,000 | source statute · 2026-08-06 |
| Georgia | $300,000 | $100,000 | $300,000 present value, but not more than $250,000 in net cash surrender/withdrawal values | $300,000 | source statute · 2026-08-06 |
| Hawaii | $300,000 | $100,000 | $250,000 | $300,000 | source official · 2026-08-06 |
| Idaho | $300,000 | $100,000 | $250,000 | $300,000 | source statute · 2026-08-06 |
| Illinois | $300,000 | $100,000 | $250,000 | $300,000 | source statute · 2026-08-06 |
| Indiana | $300,000 | $100,000 | $250,000 | $300,000 | source official · 2026-08-06 |
| Iowa | $300,000 | $100,000 | $250,000 | $350,000 | source statute · 2026-08-06 |
| Kansas | $300,000 | $100,000 | $250,000 | $300,000 | source official · 2026-08-06 |
| Kentucky | $300,000 | $100,000 | $250,000 | $300,000 | source statute · 2026-08-06 |
| Louisiana | $300,000 | $100,000 | $250,000 | $500,000 | source official · 2026-08-06 |
| Maine | $300,000 | $100,000 | $250,000 | $300,000 | source statute · 2026-08-06 |
| Maryland | $300,000 | $100,000 | $250,000 | $300,000 | source statute · 2026-08-06 |
| Massachusetts | $300,000 | $100,000 | $250,000 | $300,000 | source statute · 2026-08-06 |
| Michigan | $300,000 | $100,000 | $250,000 | $300,000 | source official · 2026-08-06 |
| Minnesota | $500,000 | $130,000 | $250,000 | $500,000 | source statute · 2026-08-06 |
| Mississippi | $300,000 | $100,000 | $250,000 | $300,000 | source statute · 2026-08-06 |
| Missouri | $300,000 | $100,000 | $250,000 | $300,000 | source statute · 2026-08-06 |
| Montana | $300,000 | $100,000 | $250,000 | $300,000 | source statute · 2026-08-06 |
| Nebraska | $300,000 | $100,000 | $250,000 | $300,000 | source statute · 2026-08-06 |
| Nevada | $300,000 | $100,000 | $250,000 | $300,000 | source statute · 2026-08-06 |
| New Hampshire | $300,000 | $100,000 | $250,000 | $300,000 | source statute · 2026-08-06 |
| New Jersey | $500,000 | $100,000 | $500,000 | $500,000 | source statute · 2026-08-06 |
| New Mexico | $300,000 | $100,000 | $250,000 | $300,000 | source statute · 2026-08-06 |
| New York | no separate limit folded into the combined cap | no separate limit folded into the combined cap | no separate limit folded into the combined cap | $500,000 | source statute · 2026-08-06 |
| North Carolina | $300,000 | no separate limit folded into the combined cap | no separate limit folded into the combined cap | $300,000 | source statute · 2026-08-06 |
| North Dakota | $300,000 | $100,000 | $250,000 | $300,000 | source statute · 2026-08-06 |
| Ohio | $300,000 | $100,000 | $250,000 | $300,000 | source statute · 2026-08-06 |
| Oklahoma | $300,000 | $100,000 | $300,000 | $300,000 | source statute · 2026-08-06 |
| Oregon | $300,000 | $100,000 | $250,000 | $300,000 | source statute · 2026-08-06 |
| Pennsylvania | $300,000 | $100,000 | $250,000 | $300,000 | source statute · 2026-08-06 |
| Rhode Island | $300,000 | $100,000 | $250,000 | $300,000 | source statute · 2026-08-06 |
| South Carolina | $300,000 | $300,000 | $300,000 | $300,000 | source statute · 2026-08-06 |
| South Dakota | $300,000 | $100,000 | $250,000 | $300,000 | source official · 2026-08-06 |
| Tennessee | $300,000 | $100,000 | $250,000 | $300,000 | source statute · 2026-08-06 |
| Texas | $300,000 | $100,000 | $250,000 | $300,000 | source statute · 2026-08-06 |
| Utah | $500,000 | $200,000 | no separate limit folded into the combined cap | $500,000 | source statute · 2026-08-06 |
| Vermont | $300,000 | $100,000 | $250,000 | $300,000 | source statute · 2026-08-06 |
| Virginia | $300,000 | $100,000 | $250,000 | $350,000 | source statute · 2026-08-06 |
| Washington | $500,000 | $500,000 | $500,000 | $500,000 | source statute · 2026-08-06 |
| West Virginia | $300,000 | $100,000 | $250,000 | $300,000 | source statute · 2026-08-06 |
| Wisconsin | $300,000 | no separate limit folded into the combined cap | no separate limit folded into the combined cap | $300,000 | source statute · 2026-08-06 |
| Wyoming | $300,000 | $100,000 | $250,000 | $500,000 | source statute · 2026-08-06 |
Two kinds of blank cell, and they mean opposite things
Some cells above are empty, and merging the two reasons for that would be the single most misleading thing this page could do.
“No separate limit” is a finding, not a gap. New York, North Carolina, Utah, Wisconsin do not have the component sublimits the model act uses — they impose one combined cap covering all benefits for any one life, so there is no separate cash-surrender or annuity figure to report. New York is the clearest case: a single $500,000 cap for all benefits including cash values, with no death-benefit sublimit at all. A table that prints “$0” or leaves these blank has invented a restriction the law does not contain.
“Not stated” is our gap. Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas publish per-category maximums through their associations but state no overall cross-category cap that we could reach, and the statutory text was not obtainable. That is three cells we could not fill, said plainly, rather than filled with the model act’s number on the assumption they follow it.
What this protection actually is, and three things it is not
Every state has a life and health insurance guaranty association. Licensed insurers are required to belong, and when one becomes insolvent the surviving members are assessed to pay the failed company’s covered claims. It is a backstop that exists, has been used, and pays. But:
- It is not federal deposit insurance and it is not the FDIC. There is no federal guarantee of a life insurance policy.
- It is not a marketing point, and in most states advertising it is illegal. Guaranty statutes commonly prohibit using the association’s existence to sell insurance. If anyone selling you a policy leads with this protection, that is itself a warning sign.
- It is not a reason to choose one insurer over another. The coverage follows the state, not the company.
The nearest thing on the pension side works differently and is worth not confusing with this: what the PBGC guarantees if your pension fails is a federal corporation with its own formula.
Which state’s limit applies to you
Generally the association of the state where the policyholder lives when the insurer is placed in liquidation — not where the policy was bought, and not where the insurer is based. That means the answer can change when someone moves, which is the one practical consequence of this table for most readers: a Californian holding a $300,000 policy is protected to $240,000, and the same policy on the same life is protected to $300,000 after a move to Nevada.
We are stating the residency rule as the general one because it is, and the exceptions — unresolved residency, policies issued to non-residents, structured settlements — are set out in each state’s own act. We have not read the residency provisions of all 51 acts and are not implying that we have.
Sources, coverage and what is not here
Forty-one rows are statute-tier and ten are official-agency — the associations’ own published limit schedules. Every row carries its source and the date it was read. Nothing in this table is secondary-sourced.
Not covered: health, disability and long-term-care limits, which most of these same associations also administer under different figures — unallocated annuity contracts — the interest-rate adjustments some acts apply to annuity present values — and the residency and eligibility exceptions noted above. The limits are the floor a state guarantees, not a promise about how a particular liquidation will run; recoveries also depend on the failed insurer’s own assets, which frequently cover much of the claim before the association’s limit is ever reached.
Related on this site: grace periods and lapse protection by state · free-look periods by state · the universal life lapse pattern.
See methodology and corrections. Reusable under CC BY 4.0 with attribution to Clear Money Guide. General information about published law, not legal or insurance advice. We sell no insurance, take no commission, and no advertising appears on this page.
Cite this
Clear Money Guide, Life Insurance Guaranty Association Limits by State, 2026. https://clearmoneyguide.com/life-insurance-guaranty-association-limits-by-state/. Read at primary source on the dates shown in each row. Reusable under CC BY 4.0 with attribution to Clear Money Guide.
No CSV yet. This table is not downloadable as a file because our file-publishing route is not available to this process; the HTML table is the machine-readable copy for now, and every row carries its own source link. We would rather say that than leave you looking for a download button that does not exist.