Insurance FAQs Life

When you are ready to convert your coverage, you may request a list of eligible insurance companies from the Office of Federal Employees' Group Life Insurance at P.O. Box 6512, Utica, NY 13504-6512 or by calling 1-800-633-4542. For overnight deliveries only (such as express mail): OFEGLI, FEGLI Conversion Team, 5950 Airport Rd., Oriskany, NY 13424-3926. You can choose any company on that list.

  The requirements for continuing your FEGLI life insurance into retirement are explained in the FEGLI Handbook. If you meet the requirements, you must choose what will happen to your Basic when you turn 65 or retire, whichever is later.  Your choices are:

• 75% Reduction: your Basic coverage reduces 2% each month until it reaches 25% of its pre-reduction amount.  Your Basic is free (no premium) once the reductions begin and remains free until your death.

• 50% Reduction: your Basic coverage reduces 1% each month until it reaches 50% of its pre-reduction amount.  There is an extra premium for this choice that you will continue to pay until you die, switch to 75% reduction, or cancel Basic.

• No Reduction: your Basic coverage does not reduce.  You maintain the same amount of Basic coverage you had when you stopped being enrolled as an employee.  There is a larger extra premium for this choice that you will continue to pay until you die, switch to 75% Reduction, or cancel Basic.

If you select 75% or 50%, the reduction begins the second month after your 65th birthday, or the second month after you retire, whichever is later. To see the different premiums for the different choices, visit Premiums for Annuitants. To make your choice, submit SF 2818 to your human resources office shortly before you retire. If you do not turn in the form, you will be defaulted to 75% Reduction.

 Yes. Your agency is supposed to give you notice on the loss of group coverage and the right to convert when your insurance ends. We know, however, that sometimes this does not happen. If your agency does not give you the conversion notice, you can request a conversion by writing directly to the Office of Federal Employees' Group Life Insurance (OFEGLI) at P.O. Box 6512, Utica, NY 13504-6512. For overnight deliveries only (such as express mail): OFEGLI, 5950 Airport Road, Oriskany, NY 13424-3926. The request must be postmarked within 31 days after the date of the terminating event. Conversions are effective at the end of the 31-day extension of coverage. If you are unable to mail the request within 31 days, you may qualify for a belated election. You must mail the request to OFEGLI within six months after the date you first became eligible to convert. Your request must show that you were not notified of the loss of coverage and the right to convert or you weren't able to convert for reasons beyond your control. Belated conversions are made retroactive to the end of the 31-day extension of coverage and you must pay the retroactive premiums. You can contact OFEGLI at 1-800-633-4542.

You may want to consider completing a new designation form whenever you have a significant change in your life, such as a marriage, divorce, or death. Be sure it remains accurate and reflects your intentions. You should also file a new designation whenever a beneficiary's address changes. Failure to do so may mean that the Office of Federal Employees' Group Life Insurance cannot locate your beneficiary and therefore cannot pay him or her the death benefits. You can download the Designation form here.

Yes. FEGLI life insurance benefits are payable regardless of the cause or location of death. However, if someone else causes your death, he or she may be excluded from receiving the death benefits. Accidental Death and Dismemberment (AD&D) coverage is an automatically included in Basic and Option A insurance for employees at no additional cost.  AD&D will not be paid in a suicide case because the death is not accidental.

If you are enrolled in Option C life insurance, complete the FE-6 DEP, Statement of Claim, Option C -- Family Life Insurance according to instructions on the form. If you need help, contact OFEGLI at 1-800-633-4542. If you are an employee, send the completed form, with a certified copy of the death certificate, to your employing agency. If you are an annuitant, send the completed form, with a certified copy of the death certificate, to: Office of Personnel Management  Retirement Operations Center  Attention: FE-6 DEP  Boyers, PA 16017

Not unless you have legally adopted your grandchild or if your grandchild meets the definition of a foster child. To qualify as a foster child, the child must live with you in a regular parent-child relationship and you must expect to raise the child to adulthood. For more information, see the FEGLI Handbook. FEGLI life insurance

Most Federal employees are automatically enrolled in Basic insurance unless they waive this coverage. Basic is effective on the first day you enter in a pay and duty status in an eligible position. If you have Basic insurance, you may also elect Optional insurance. You must specifically elect the types of Optional insurance you wish to carry within 60 days of becoming eligible. Optional insurance is effective on the first day you are in a pay and duty status on or after the day your human resources office receives your election. To elect Optional insurance within 60 days of becoming eligible, or to cancel (waive) Basic, submit the FEGLI Election Form to your human resources office.

No. A court order can direct that the insured individual assign (give up ownership of) his/her life insurance coverage under the FEGLI Program. But unless and until the insured individual files a valid assignment form (RI 76-10 Assignment), the insurance is not assigned. This is different than a designation. If valid, a court order can serve as a designation of beneficiary for life insurance purposes even if the insured individual doesn't complete a designation form.

No. You cannot convert Option C life insurance when family members lose eligibility. You can convert Option C only when you separate from service. If you do not want to convert the coverage when you separate, your family members covered under Option C are eligible to convert their coverage to an individual policy. Eligible family members can also convert their coverage upon your death. They can ask your human resources office for a Notice of Conversion Privilege (SF 2819).

Yes. Effective July 22, 1998, a new law changed the way the Office of Federal Employees' Group Life Insurance (OFEGLI) pays death benefits. OFEGLI must pay benefits in accordance with the terms of a valid court decree of divorce, annulment, or legal separation, or the terms of a court order or court-approved property settlement agreement relating to such a court decree, regardless of whether the insured individual actually completes a designation complying with the court order. To be valid the court order must be a certified copy. The appropriate office must receive the certified copy before the insured's death and it must expressly provide for someone to receive your FEGLI benefits. If a valid court order is in effect, the insured individual cannot change his/her designation, unless the person(s) named in the court order agrees in writing or unless the court order is later modified.

In theory, yes. If you can find someone willing to pay you cash in return for your assignment, certainly you are free to enter into such an arrangement. In practice, no. Viatical settlement firms pay terminally or chronically ill individuals cash in exchange for receiving the assignment of their life insurance coverage. While the required life expectancies vary by firm, no firm in the industry will pay for receiving assignment from an individual who is not terminally or chronically ill. It simply makes no sense. The firm would have no expectation of when they would receive the death benefit. They would have to discount the amount paid so much in order to account for this uncertainty, that the amount paid would go down to zero. For more information about assignment, see the FEGLI Handbook.

Your enrollment in Basic will be effective on the first day you are in pay and duty status on or after the date OFEGLI approves your request. If you also want to enroll in Option A and/or Option B, this coverage will be effective on the first day you are in pay and duty status on or after the date OFEGLI approves your request and your human resources office receives your Life Insurance Election (SF 2817) electing such coverage.

A conversion policy is an individual (non-group) life insurance policy that you are entitled to when your group life insurance ends, unless it ended because you voluntarily cancelled it. If you have assigned your insurance, the assignee(s), rather than you, is (are) entitled to convert your Basic, Option A, and Option B coverage. You may still convert your Option C coverage. Under the conversion privilege, you may convert all or any part of your Basic and Optional insurance to an individual policy. No medical examination is required. The individual policy will be a cash-value type of life insurance policy. This means it will build cash value that you can borrow against. You cannot convert to term insurance. For more information about conversion, see the FEGLI Handbook.