Insurance FAQs Life

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

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. 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.

  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. 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.

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.

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. 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).

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.

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.

When your FEGLI group life insurance terminates, you are entitled to convert your coverage to an individual policy.  Exception: If you return to Federal service in a FEGLI eligible position within three calendar days after the date your insurance stops, your coverage will continue and you are not eligible to convert.  Note: There is no conversion privilege if you cancel your coverage. There is no conversion privilege when your annuity or compensation is terminated and your FEGLI stops. 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, although you may be asked a few questions about your health to see if you qualify for a lower premium.  You do not have to answer these questions, but if you do not, you may be paying a higher premium than necessary.    The individual policy will be issued by an insurance company you (or your assignee(s), if applicable) select from the list of approved companies that have been accepted by OPM as eligible and that has agreed to issue such policies under the provisions of the FEGLI contract.    The individual policy may be for any type of life insurance customarily issued by the insurance company you select, except term insurance, universal life insurance, or any other type of life insurance with an indeterminate premium.  It cannot include disability or Accidental Death & Dismemberment benefits.  Any insurance policy purchased under the conversion privilege is a private business transaction between you and the insurance company.  The cost of the individual policy is determined by the insurance company and is based on your age and class of risk. Since you will no longer be part of the group contract, the premium payments may be much higher than the FEGLI premiums. When your insurance terminates, your employing office must give you a Notice of Conversion Privilege (SF 2819). If you wish to convert your coverage, you must send the SF 2819 to Office of Federal Employees’ Group Life Insurance (OFEGLI) within the 31-day time limit for converting. Your agency must also give you an Agency Certification of Insurance Status (SF 2821). Send that form to OFEGLI along with the SF 2819.  If you do not have the SF 2821, do not delay in sending the SF 2819. Go ahead and send the SF 2819. You should request a completed SF 2821 from your agency before the expiration of the 31 day time limit and forward it to OFEGLI. OFEGLI needs the SF 2821 to calculate the amount of insurance you can convert. Once OFEGLI has received your SF 2819 and SF 2821, it will send you a list of insurance companies that are offering conversion policies in your area.  You must contact the companies to get information on the conversion policy and the cost. 

Yes, Public Law 110-417, the Duncan Hunter National Defense Authorization Act, allows new opportunities for certain employees. The new election applies if you are a civilian employee eligible for FEGLI who is deployed in support of a contingency operation as defined by section 101 (a) (13) of Title 10. You may elect Basic, Option A and Option B (up to the maximum of 5 multiples). You must make the election on the SF 2817 (or its electronic equivalent) within 60 days after the date of notification of your deployment in support of a contingency operation. Contact your employing agency human resources office for more information. See more details in BAL 08-204.

Your insurance continues automatically for the first 12 months of nonpay status. If you return to pay status for a period of four consecutive months or more, you start a new 12-month period of continued coverage. Four consecutive months in pay status means any four-month period during which you are in pay status for at least part of each pay period. For example:

Melissa was on leave without pay (LWOP) from January 1 to February 28, 2012. She returned to work on March 1, 2012. She worked through July 31, 2012, and again went on LWOP. Since she was in a pay and duty status for at least four consecutive months, she will start a new 12-month period of continued coverage. The period she was on LWOP from January 1 through February 28, 2012, will not count against the new 12-month period that starts August 1, 2012. 

If you return to pay status for less than four consecutive months, and you then again go into a nonpay status, you continue in the same 12-month nonpay status period. Another example will help.

Mai went on leave without pay (LWOP) on February 1, 2012. She then returned to work on May 1, 2012. She worked through July 31, 2012, and again went on LWOP beginning August 1, 2012. Since she was in a pay status for less than four months, we continue in the same 12-month LWOP status. If she does not return to pay and duty status, Mai's life insurance will end at the end of the day on April 30, 2013.

If you return to pay status for less than four consecutive months after your insurance ends due to 12 months in nonpay status, you do not get another 12-month period of continued coverage. You have insurance while you are again in pay status, but your insurance will stop on the last day of your last pay period in pay status. Here is an example of this situation.

Carlos' insurance ended on August 31, 2012 which was the end of 12 months in a nonpay status. Carlos returned to work on October 1, 2012. His life insurance is reinstated. On November 16, 2012, Carlos again goes into a LWOP status. Since he was in a pay status for less than four consecutive months, his life insurance ends at the end of the last day of the pay period in which Carlos went on LWOP or November 20, 2012. He does not begin a new 12-month period of continued coverage.