Frequently Asked Questions Benefits for LGBT Federal Employees and Annuitants

If a retiree is married at retirement, an election for a survivor annuity benefit must be made at retirement, or if an annuitant wants to increase the amount of a survivor annuity provided to a spouse at retirement, the annuitant must elect that increase within 18 months of the retirement.

If the retiree is not married at retirement but then gets married after retirement, the election needs to be made within the 2-year period following the marriage.  If a person elects a survivor annuity for a spouse acquired after marriage, OPM must reduce the annuitant’s annuity by the cost of the survivor annuity benefit. Additionally, OPM must collect a deposit (through an actuarial reduction to the annuitant’s annuity) representing the amount the annuitant would have received had the survivor election been in place from the annuity commencing date to the effective date of the election, plus interest.

You can find more information about electing survivor annuity benefits after retirement by going to the Life Events webpage on Marriage/Divorce. You can also call contact OPM Retirement Services to talk about the specifics of your case.

If you divorce and remarry prior to retirement, you must elect to provide a full survivor benefit for your current spouse, unless you get your spouse’s consent to elect less than a full survivor benefit. Contact your HR office for information on the cost of providing a survivor benefit to a current spouse and/or a former spouse.

If you divorce and remarry after retirement, you are not required to elect a survivor annuity for a spouse acquired after retirement, but you may voluntarily choose to do so.  You must make this election within 2 years of the date of marriage.  You may also voluntarily elect a survivor benefit for a former spouse within 2 years of divorce.  Contact OPM for information on the cost of providing a survivor benefit to a current spouse and/or a former spouse.

If you divorce, a court order may award your former spouse a full or partial survivor benefit.  You should notify OPM of your divorce and provide a copy of any court orders issued pursuant to the divorce.  Provisions in a court order awarding a survivor annuity benefit to a former spouse will supersede an election made on behalf a current spouse.  The current spouse becomes a contingent beneficiary and may receive any remaining survivor benefit not otherwise awarded and/or will receive the portion of the survivor annuity benefit elected for the current spouse should the former spouse lose entitlement as a result of death or remarriage.

For additional information on this subject, please visit your agency HR Office or go to the OPM Retirement Services Life Events webpage on Marriage/Divorce.

Beginning in 2011 (Carrier letter 2011-12), OPM emphasized that transgender individuals should be provided appropriate preventive services in accordance with their individual medical status.  For example, an individual who transitions from female to male may still need pap smears if they have not undergone a hysterectomy.

Effective January 1, 2016, no carrier participating in the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program may have a general exclusion of services, drugs or supplies related to gender transition or “sex transformations.”

All plans complied with the OPM directive to remove blanket exclusions.  There are plans in every state that will offer mental health services, hormone therapy, and gender re-assignment surgery.

Plans differ in their covered services and procedures.  Members seeking specific services should consult plan brochures posted by state at www.opm.gov/insure.

Brochures contain links to the plan websites and plan contact information (see www.opm.gov/fehbbrochures).  Members/prospective members may contact the health plan directly to learn more about medical necessity criteria, pre-authorization, and/or pre-certification.  As an example, many carriers require a period of hormone therapy before surgery will be approved for coverage.

Same-sex domestic partners are ineligible for a spousal survivor annuity benefit. However, employees may elect at retirement an insurable interest annuity for anyone, including domestic partners or partners to a civil union, as long as they can show they are in good health and the people designated for this benefit can show that they have an insurable interest in the continued life of the employee.  The Office of Personnel Management will presume a same-sex domestic partner has an insurable interest in the continued life of an employee.

Yes, you may cover your same-sex spouse, but not your domestic partner at this time.

Same-sex couples who are in a civil union or other forms of domestic partnership other than marriage are ineligible for most benefits. There are two big exceptions. 

The Federal Long-Term Care Insurance Program (FLTCIP) allows those individuals who satisfy the same-sex domestic partnership standard to be treated as qualifying relatives for Federal employees and annuitants. 

Also, employees may elect at retirement an insurable interest annuity for anyone, including domestic partners or partners to a civil union, as long as the retiree can show he/she is in good health and the person designated for this benefit can show that he/she has an insurable interest in the continued life of the employee. An insurable interest annuity is a different survivor benefit from a spousal survivor annuity benefit, so be aware that an insurable interest annuity provides a different level of benefits than a survivor annuity for a legal spouse.

Generally, if you are married at the time of retirement, you are required to provide full survivor annuity benefits for your spouse unless your spouse consents to a lesser amount or no survivor benefits.

If no survivor benefit is payable, OPM will pay a lump-sum death benefit under the statutory order of precedence. Under the order of precedence, OPM must pay the lump-sum to any beneficiary the employee/retiree has designated as the recipient of that benefit. If the employee/retiree did not designate a beneficiary, then the next person entitled under the order of precedence is the surviving spouse.

As for Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) benefits, the experts at the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board provided this answer: “A participant can designate any individual, organization, a trust or will as a beneficiary without spousal consent. However the spouse must consent to withdrawal that it is in any form other than a joint life survivor annuity with the spouse as the joint annuitant.”