Q: My father passed away a couple of months ago and my stepmother is waiting to receive the FEGLI and annuity packets from OPM. Per my father’s FERS paperwork, he left my stepmother, my brother (deceased) and I (adult child) as his beneficiaries. However, per all the survivor’s information on the OPM website, only children with disabilities, attending college or under the age of 18 are eligible. Is this true? A: Any Federal Employees Group Life Insurance benefits will be divided according to your father’s designation of beneficiaries. However, while your stepmother would be entitled to a survivor annuity, to…
Browsing: LIFE INSURANCE
Q: I need an address to find out what my life insurance amount is. I retired in 2006 and do not know how much life insurance I have. I have a toll-free number to call, but it is always busy, and the other number I was given has you waiting as much as 30 minutes. A: You can send a FAX to OFEGLI at 315-792-6603 or 312-792-6802 or write them at OFEGLI. P.O. Box 6512, Utica, NY 13504-6512. You can also send an overnight delivery letter (such as by FedEx) to OFEGLI, 5950 Airport Road, Oriskany, NY 13424-3926.
Q: My husband is 56 and we have been married for four years. He works with the Navy as a civilian and has 35 years of service. If he dies, will I get his civil service retirement? Will I still qualify for his Veterans Affairs benefits? How about his Social Security? I am 27. Does age make a difference? I know he doesn’t pay in for FEGLI. Do federal employees have life insurance covered by the government? A: If your husband were to die, you would be entitled to a survivor annuity. The same is true if he was eligible…
Q: When I contacted my U.S. Postal Service personnel office and asked them whether I could name my partner as an insurable interest, I was told that I could not. What must I do to make this happen? We have been together over 11 years now and we own property together. A: Your personnel office contact was mistaken. You can elect an insurable interest annuity for your partner. The way to do that is spelled out in Chapter 52, Survivor Benefit Elections, of the Office of Personnel Management’s CSRS and FERS Handbook for Personnel and Payroll Offices. Just go to…
Q: I am a Civil Service Retirement System Offset annuitant hired in 1968. In 1985, our branch of government was taken over by the private sector. The private sector bought all of my federal service. In 2002, there was a reduction In force. I was eligible for an early retirement at age 51 and therefore receive two retirement checks: One for federal service and the other for my time purchased by the private sector. As a CSRS Offset employee, at age 62 I am subject to the Offset Social Security calculations but also have the same time purchased by the…
Q: I was hired in 1968 and had Federal Employees’ Group Life Insurance deductions from the beginning of employment. However, in 1985 my branch of government was dissolved. As a result, the entire branch was transferred to the private sector (FHLBank). I would like to know what happened to the FEGLI deductions for those years of service. We were never refunded for those years worth of deductions. A: The FEGLI is a term insurance program. As long as you were employed by the federal government and paid your share of the premiums through payroll deduction, you were covered. When you…
Q: My father passed away at age 79 on Oct. 29. He and my mother divorced Jan. 31, 1985, and she never remarried. He remarried, but his wife passed away Jan. 26, 2009. He has two adult children from his first marriage. Would his former spouse be entitled to any benefits before his children? There is no beneficiary and no court order on file. A: She wouldn’t be entitled to any retirement benefits. Whether she would have title to any Federal Employees’ Group Life Insurance benefits would depend on who he had designated as his beneficiary.
Q: Can you define the “no reduction” option? My understanding of it is this: For example, take a basic life insurance policy, prior to retirement, worth $100,000. At retirement, I can choose to keep paying for $100,000 coverage up to age 65 with the “no reduction” option. Is that correct, or is the coverage amount based on your retirement annuity, which would be much less ($58,000)? A: The “no reduction” option allows you to preserve the face value of your insurance on the day you retire. It has no connection to the amount of your annuity.
Q: I am a 57-year-old FERS employee. For the last 20 or so years of my 27-year career, I have carried a private life insurer (WAEPA) instead of FEGLI. Would it be beneficial to me to switch back to FEGLI, which I believe now has lower premiums? Also, how long would I have to carry FEGLI before I could retire? A: I have no idea if it would be beneficial for you to switch. However, if you do, you would need to be enrolled in FEGLI for five consecutive years before you retire to carry that coverage into retirement.
Q: Nobody can seem to give me a straight answer to this question: I’m 59 years old and under the Federal Employees Retirement System, with 18 years of service. I had heart bypass surgery four years ago, and I’m now having complications. Because I have to have 20 years of service to qualify for a pension, it appears that my wife will not get my pension if I die before I hit the 20-year mark, which is 20 months away. However, I have reached the minimum retirement age, so if something happens soon, can my wife get my pension, less…