Q. I am retiring in April, 2011 under FERS as a law enforcement agent in a covered position. I will have 23 years and two months of service. I have been married for 38 years and my spouse is my age. Is there a benefit to opting for an insurable interest over the standard annuity? Is there a drawback? No one at CBP is able to answer this question for me. I need to get my paperwork submitted in the next few days and cannot decide what to select for retirement annuity. A. I can think of no advantage to…
Browsing: survivor annuity
Q: I am the surviving spouse of a federal employee and have been receiving an annuity since the death of my husband in 1993. My question is whether my annuity will continue if I marry again. I am well over the age of 55. I cannot seem to find the answer to this on the official website. A: Because you are age 55 or older, if you remarry your annuity will continue.
Q: I am currently 65 and a federal employee with four years and one month continuous full-time service with health insurance. My husband, age 62, is receiving a CSRS annuity, has federal health insurance, and retired after 34 years of civil service. We married 9/25/10, and were told I could be on his health insurance. He sent the required marriage certificate and letter of request. (We both had checked on the process for health insurance that this was acceptable). However, his health carrier stated that if he died before I did, I would be removed from the health insurance because he did not elect…
Q: My husband and I are both federal law enforcement officers. The family health plan is under my husband. We both plan to retire this year. He wants me to waive my survivor annuity and he says I will still be covered under our federal Blue Cross/Blue Shield plan because I was covered for the last five years of my employment under the Federal Employees Health Benefits family plan that he carried. He wants a bigger retirement check. My question is, if I sign the survivor annuity waiver and he dies before me, am I still automatically covered under our…
Q: My husband passed away Jan. 25, 2009, and I’m receiving his Social Security benefits, as well as benefits from the U.S. Postal Service. If I remarry, will I lose the benefits from the USPS? I know I will still collect his Social Security. A: Unless you were to remarry before age 55, your survivor annuity wouldn’t be affected. If you did remarry before age 55, that annuity would be suspended. It could only be restarted is the marriage were ended by annulment, divorce or the death of the new spouse.
This is my follow–up question to your answer below on Sept. 28. Q. When I retired five years ago I was then divorced and did not arrange for any spousal survivor benefits. If I elect to marry or remarry, how would my pension be affected? A. If you were to marry, you would have two years to elect a survivor annuity for your new spouse. If you did, there would be two reductions in your annuity. The first would be the standard deduction to provide a survivor annuity, the amount to be determined by whether you elected a full or…
Q. I am a CSRS retiree and my wife is a FERS retiree. If we both take out a survivor annuity on our own retirements and one or the other of us passes away, can the survivor collect their own retirement and the survivor annuity from the deceased one? A. Yes
Q. I am under CSRS and my wife is under FERS. When I retire I will take out a survivor annuity for her. If I should die before her and she is also retired, can she collect my survivor annuity and her FERS retirement or will she be penalized on her Social Security. A. She would be able to receive your survivor annuity, whether or not she was retired. If she was retired, she would also receive her own annuity and, when she was eligible, a penalty-free Social Security benefit.
Q. My husband and I have been married for 11 years He never added me to get benefits if something happen to him so that I could get health coverage and monthly check. He was not married at the time of retirement in 1993. Can this be done now? A. Unfortunately, no, because by law he would have had to elect a reduction in his annuity to provide a survivor benefit for you within two years of the date of your marriage. It’s too late to do that now.
Q: My husband recently died, and we were devastated that our grandson, who is disabled, and has lived with us as a son since birth was denied a survivor’s annuity. We have one item that I thought might prove that he was really our de facto son. Our daughter, his mother, years ago signed a paper that resigned all her parental rights in favor of me and my husband. There is no father recognized on the birth certificate. Is this worth appealing with this paperwork? I don’t want to waste my time, but he really was our son in every…