U.S. Office of Personnel Management - Ensuring the Federal Government has an effective civilian workforce

We encourage you to call us when you want to discuss your own life insurance or the life insurance program in general. Our Retirement Information Office is staffed with Customer Service Specialists trained to provide information and assistance to you in a wide variety of situations. You can request many of the services you need by telephone. This includes mailing and payment address changes.

To reach the Retirement Information Office, call 1-888-767-6738. With the exception of Federal holidays and weekends, this office is open from 7:30 a.m. to 7:45 p.m. Eastern time, Monday through Friday. Annuitants with hearing impairments who have TDD equipment should call 1-800-878-5707. If you are calling within the local Washington, DC, area, dial 202-606-0500. To use TDD equipment on local calls, dial 202-606-0551.

When you call, you will be greeted by an automatic answering system which will guide you through a menu that lists the topics our customers call about most frequently. This system allows you to record requests for services (such as asking for forms you need or reporting a death — features that are available even after business hours). If you call during our business hours, you will have the opportunity to speak to a Customer Service Specialist.

To authorize changes to your life insurance coverage, you will need to write to us. We need your written instructions so that if there is any question about your life insurance after your death, we will have your intentions documented.

Whether you call for information or write, be sure to give us your civil service claim number (CSA number). This number is shown on your identification card and on all correspondence from us. If you write, please give us your full name and your date of birth or your social security number as well as your claim number.

If someone writes on your behalf, we still must have your signature in order to provide information about your life insurance coverage. Unless you have assigned your  coverage, you are the only person with the ability to cancel or decrease your life insurance coverage or designate a beneficiary. These are your personal rights under the Federal Employees’ Group Life Insurance Program.

If you become mentally incompetent, no one can make any change in your life insurance. Our policy in this area is designed to protect the annuitant’s entitlement to the life insurance benefit. Actions that cannot be undone by the annuitant if he or she regains competence, or actions that can be made in favor of another person to the detriment of the annuitant, are the annuitant’s personal rights that may not be exercised by court-appointed guardians or others.

If the life insurance has been assigned, these rights extend to the assignee (the person who owns the life insurance).

Address your correspondence about life insurance to:

U.S. Office of Personnel Management
Retirement Operations Center
P.O. Box 45
Boyers, PA 16017-0045

Note to employees:
This pamphlet is written for retired persons. Because the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) does not have access to employees’ personnel records, employees need to contact their agency human resources offices for assistance and specific information about insurance.