Insurance FAQs Life

Yes, it is true. As part of the Basic life insurance, employees who are under age 45 get an Extra Benefit at no additional cost. The Extra Benefit doubles the amount of the life insurance payable if you are age 35 or younger. Beginning on your 36th birthday, the Extra Benefit decreases 10% each year until, at age 45, there is no Extra Benefit.

Please report it here: https://apps.opm.gov/retire/death/death.cfm.  If you are unable to use the website, you can report it by contacting OPM’s Retirement Office at 1-888-767-6738 or retire@opm.gov.  The phone lines are open from 7:30 am to 7:45 pm (Eastern Standard Time). It is a busy phone number so we encourage you to call early in the morning or after 5:00 pm when the phone lines are less busy.

You can submit a court order if you are an employee, an annuitant, a former spouse, the former spouse's attorney or anyone else.

No. Accidental death and dismemberment coverage ends when your employment ends. You cannot carry this coverage into retirement.

No. The only way to continue coverage into retirement is to meet the five year/all opportunity rule. You cannot "buy" the years you are missing.

The date of the court order itself is not relevant. But the date the agency or retirement system (as applicable) received the court order is relevant. If someone submitted a court order before July 22, 1998, it is not valid and the Office of Federal Employees' Group Life Insurance (OFEGLI) cannot honor it.

Yes. The amount of your FEGLI automatically increases when your salary goes up, whenever your annual pay is increased by an amount sufficient to raise the pay to the next $1,000 bracket.

A Living Benefit payment is a lump sum payment to those who are terminally ill and have a documented medical prognosis showing a life expectancy of no more than nine months. You are eligible to elect a Living Benefit if you are an employee, annuitant, or compensationer and you are enrolled in the FEGLI Program. Employees can choose a full or partial (a multiple of $1,000) Living Benefit. Annuitants and compensationers can elect only a full Living Benefit. A Living Benefit is equal to the Basic Life insurance amount, plus any extra benefit for persons under age 45, that would be in effect nine months after the date of the Office of Federal Employees' Group Life Insurance (OFEGLI) receives a completed claim for Living Benefits form. If you have assigned your life insurance, you cannot elect a Living Benefit. Living Benefit payments are reduced by a nominal amount (4.9%) to make up for lost earnings to the Life Insurance Fund because of the early payment of benefits. The election of Living Benefits has no effect on the amount of any Optional life insurance. You will continue to pay premiums for any Optional insurance you have. You must contact OFEGLI at 1-800-633-4542 to obtain the form to elect Living Benefits (Form FE-8). This form is not available from your human resources office or the Office of Personnel Management (OPM).

Living Benefits payments received on or after January 1, 1997, are not subject to Federal income tax. However, some states have laws, regulations, or rulings concerning the taxability of Living Benefits (also called accelerated death benefits). You should consult a tax advisor or your State's tax department for specific information concerning State income tax laws. Qualified payments from viatical settlement firms received on or after January 1, 1997 are also not subject to Federal income tax provided the companies meet certain tax exemption qualifications. If you are considering assigning your insurance to a viatical settlement firm, you should consult a tax advisor to determine if you and the viatical settlement firm meet the tax exemption qualification standards.

Yes, and this works differently than when a survivor disclaims benefits. You can name someone as a beneficiary and someone else if that first person disclaims the benefits. It's a form of contingent beneficiary. As the insured, you CAN specify who should receive the disclaimed benefits (the beneficiary cannot specify who should receive disclaimed benefits). For example, you could word your designation like this:

Mary Jones, 100%, unless she disclaims.  Otherwise to Johnson Wallace, 100%.

Yes, you as the insured, can cancel coverage even if there is a court order on file.

No. Employees can only enroll in Basic, Option A and Option B this way. Obtaining a physical does not allow you to enroll in Option C. You must either enroll during an unrestricted Open Season or else in connection with a life event — marriage, divorce, death of spouse or acquisition of eligible children.

The cost of Basic insurance is shared between you and the Government. You pay two-thirds and the Government pays one-third. Your age does not affect the cost of Basic insurance. You pay $0.1500 per $1,000 biweekly or $0.3250 monthly. If you are a Postal employee, the U.S. Postal Service pays the entire cost of your Basic life insurance. You pay the full cost of all Optional insurance. The cost depends on your age and the amount of insurance you have. (You can see the premiums for Optional insurance by clicking here.) Your agency will withhold the premiums from your pay.

The reductions start at the beginning of the 2nd month after your 65th birthday or the beginning of the 2nd month after your retirement date, whichever is later. For example: Pierre retired December 31, 1999. He will turn 65 on March 15, 2005. The reductions for his Basic and Optional insurance (if applicable) will start May 1, 2005. Here's another example: Selena was 67 years old when she retired on December 31, 1999. Since she was already past 65 when she retired, the reductions for her Basic and Optional insurance (if applicable) will start February 1, 2000.