Q. My husband of six months passed away in April 2005 while an active federal employee. His will made me the personal representative and his daughter (my stepdaughter) as alternate if I should not wish to be the personal rep. After his death, his daughter said she would be the personal rep because I asked her to since the estate would be given to his three children. After his death, I was told that I had no claim on his FERS account since we were not married for a year. But do his grown children? If not, what happens to…
Browsing: Federal Employees’ Group Life Insurance
Q. I am 51 and have 32 years for FERS retirement now. I need to be at least 56 to retire. If I quit civil service now and work in the private sector, will I still receive FERS retirement and the FERS supplement when I turn 56? What other benefits would I lose, i.e. health insurance? A. If you left government now, you could apply for a deferred annuity at age 60. You wouldn’t be eligible for the special retirement supplement, nor could you re-enroll in either the Federal Employees Health Benefits or Federal Employees’ Group Life Insurance programs.
Q. For FERS retirements, what are the differences between a deferred retirement and a postponed retirement, especially as they pertain to FEHB benefits? A. Some employees who retire under the MRA+10 provision (minimum retirement age with at least 10 but fewer than 30 years of service) postpone the receipt of their annuities to reduce or eliminate the age penalty, which is 5 percent for every year they are younger than 62. Regardless of when they activate it, if they were enrolled in the Federal Employees Health Benefit and/or Federal Employees Group Life Insurance programs for the five consecutive years before…
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: My brother retired from the U.S. Postal Service a few years ago. He passed away a few weeks ago, and his wife asked the San Antonio post office how she could apply for his insurance. She was told that he had no insurance. He specifically told me that he did: I retired from civil service and have insurance, and my brother said that he had the same sort of coverage. If he has a claim it would be a great aid to his widow. A: His widow should call the Office of Personnel Management’s Retirement Information Office at 888-767-6738…