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http://www.opm.gov/insure/life/reference/76-12/fegli3.asp

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Life

Information for Retirees and Their Families

Pamphlet RI 76-12
General Information about the Federal Employees’ Group Life Insurance Program

The Federal Employees’ Group Life Insurance Program provides insurance which builds no cash value; it is intended to provide a cash payment after your death. You cannot borrow against your Federal life insurance benefit.

Requirements for Continuing Life Insurance Coverage into Retirement

Your Basic Life, Option A - Standard, Option B - Additional, and Option C - Family insurance coverages (depending on what coverage you may have) are continued into retirement if:

  1. you retired on an immediate annuity (one which began within a month after you separated), and
  2. you were insured for the five years of service immediately before your annuity commencing date or for the entire period(s) during which the coverages were available to you, and
  3. you elected to continue your coverage, and
  4. you did not convert your life insurance to an individual policy.

Note that under the Federal Employees’ Retirement System, an immediate annuity includes eligibility for an annuity if you separate at the minimum retirement age and have 10 years of service. If you meet the requirements above, you may continue your life insurance coverage as a retiree even if you choose to postpone receipt of your annuity. If you do choose to postpone receiving your annuity, your coverage stops until the date your annuity begins. If you want to continue the coverage you had when you separated, it will resume when your monthly payments begin, even if you convert your life insurance to an individual policy upon your separation for retirement.

 
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