Q. My father is very ill and might not make it. I have no idea what his finances are. I know he served in the military for two years and retired from the Postal Service with over 20 years. Is there any way to get information about his benefits, if he has any? I don’t know if he was with FERS or CSRS. A. If he was receiving an annuity, that fact should be noted in his personal records and in his bank statements. You might check his wallet to see if he’s carrying an identification card issued by the Office…
Browsing: FEGLI
Q. My father remarried when I was 15. I was his only child. When he was 51 and I was 24, he was diagnosed with cancer. While he was in the hospital undergoing colon surgery, I was informed that he was changing his beneficiary status to his new wife. I received a small portion compared to the half that was originally on the form. I received a pension check for half of his pension one time after his death, and then his widow started to receive the entire amount. Besides the hurt this caused me, she remarried within a year and gave up his pension.…
Q. I am under civil service offset and in the retirement red zone. I am in the process of updating paperwork and need to know which life insurance forms to fill out. On file, I already have Designation of Beneficiary (Civil Service Retirement System SF 2808). I picked up a benefits package with forms and it contains Designation of Beneficiary (Federal Employees’ Group Life Insurance SF 2823). The election form is also FEGLI (not CSRS). Is there a difference in these? A. The SF 2808 is for CSRS employees; the SF 2823 is for FERS employees.
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…
Q: I took an early-out retirement in 2003 and have been working for the Army in Hawaii as a contractor since 2004. I have a few questions I’d like confirmation on. My position has been insourced, and I will be offered a job as a rehired annuitant to provide critical skills missing from current workforce. Under this critical skills scenario, I have been told there will be no decrement to my current CSRS Offset retirement monthly payment to offset my government salary, is that correct? Will I have any type of 401(k)-like program that I can contribute pre-tax dollars to? Do I get to participate in the…
Q. 1) Suppose one retires under the Civil Service Retirement System on Sunday, Oct. 31. I like to ask whether that is an especially poor date because I heard: a) in computing the high-3, only 30 days are used and thus Day 31 is not used; b) if one retires any other day except for the 31st, an extra day is added in computing high-3; c) two days of annuity is lost since salaries are not paid/prorated on weekends while annuity is paid/prorated. Yet, Human Resources said that the above is untrue because by some complicated formula, Day 31 is considered…
Q: My wife died 13 years ago. How do I assign my survivor benefits to my common-law wife? A: You can submit new designation-of-beneficiary forms: SF 2823 for Federal Employees Group Life Insurance; SF 2808 for the Civil Service Retirement System or SF 3102 for the Federal Employees Retirement System survivor annuity; and TSP-3 for your Thrift Savings Plan investments (available on the TSP website). Some of these benefits may only be available in a state that recognizes common-law marriages. Check with an attorney to make sure that your state is one of them.
Q. I am a FERS employee who, prior to having five years of current life insurance through the federal government, will be required to file for FERS disability retirement. Does the period of Leave Without Pay qualify for purposes of continuing accrual toward the five-year mandatory period? I will enter into LWOP, awaiting the OPM decision, about five months prior to having the requisite five-year period. A. Yes, periods of LWOP up to 12 months count toward meeting the five-year requirement. Further, that coverage is provided at no cost to you or your agency.