By: Tom O’Rourke, Counsel
Published: November 2023
By: Tom O’Rourke, Counsel
Published: November 2023
By: Ray Kirk, Ph.D., Federal Benefits Specialist
Published: October 2023
By: Bob Braunstein, Federal Benefits Specialist
Published: September 2023
By: Brian Kurrus, CFP®
Published: August 2023
By: Herb Casey, Federal Benefits Specialist
Published: July 2023
As a Federal employee or Federal retiree, you probably have had questions about how Medicare and Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) work together. This article will help you understand the four most common Medicare Parts (A, B, C and D) available once you are eligible for Medicare and how they work with FEHB.
Generally, you are eligible for Medicare if you are age 65 or older and are retired from Federal service. Medicare becomes the primary insurance payer and your FEHB plan is the secondary payer. If you are still employed at age 65, your FEHB plan is still primary. You are not required to sign up for Medicare while you are still working and for up to eight months after retiring.
All FEHB plans will adjust benefits payable so that they supplement rather than duplicate Medicare benefits. If Medicare is the primary payer, it generally will pay its allowable benefits in full and your FEHB plan will pay a reduced benefit as the secondary payer.
Published: June 2023
By George Marchant, Technical Recruiter
Published: May 2023
By: Karen P. Schaeffer, CFP®
Published: April 2023
By: Bob Braunstein, Federal Benefits Specialist
Published: March 2023
By: Vanessa Craddock, Federal Benefit Specialist
Published: February, 2023
By: Kaitlin Schaeffer Yardley, CFP®
Published: January, 2023
By: Tom O’Rourke, Counsel
Published: December 2022
By: Bob Braunstein, Federal Benefits Specialist
Published: November, 2022
By: Karen Schaeffer, CFP®
Published: October, 2022
By: Herb Casey, Federal Retirement Specialist
Published: September 2022
In the same way that you developed your career, to have a purposeful and rewarding retirement, you must think about what steps you can take now to prepare for that next chapter. You may have something you put on the back burner during your career that you want to focus on. Transitioning to retirement can be difficult because your whole routine will change in that you will not be going into the office, and you will no longer be who you were.
What path will you take in retirement? To begin the process of finding your next path, determine who you are. You must look inward during this process. You will need to determine your purpose, values, and strengths.
By: George Marchant, Technical Recruiter
Published: August 2022
By: Mercedes Johnson, Federal Benefits Specialist
Published: July, 2022
I know you are excited! You are retiring in a few months and can’t wait to begin the second phase of your life called Retirement. It is very important that you review your retirement plan and benefits in between your upcoming retirement festivities. How, you ask? Well, below you will find an easy retirement checklist to follow within 6 months of retirement so that you are well prepared and ready for retirement:
By: Vanessa Craddock, Federal Benefits Specialist
Published: June, 2022
By: Kaitlin Schaeffer Yardley, CFP®
Published: May, 2022
By: Ray Kirk, Ph.D., Federal Benefits Specialist
Published: April, 2022
By: Vanessa Craddock
Published: March, 2022
Question: I’m about to retire at the end of the year and was told I should check my OPF before leaving. What should I look for?
Answer: The easy answer is to make sure your personnel records are in order: accurate and complete. This will help expedite the retirement process. Your Official Personnel Folder (eOPF) contains important documents used to determine retirement eligibility and your benefit calculation. While the “Certified Summary of Federal Service” is a form you may request from HR which provides a record of your creditable Federal service, it is your responsibility to confirm its content.
By: Bob Braunstein, Federal Benefits Specialist
Published: February, 2022
If you are a retired Federal employee with FEHB coverage, when you turn 65 you are not required to enroll in Medicare – but enrollment for most will be cost effective and worth it. When you enroll in Medicare Part A and Part B (Part B has an extra individual premium), Medicare becomes your primary payer for hospital and outpatient services. When FEHB is then the secondary payer, the deductibles, copays, and coinsurance you have been paying will disappear. Additionally, many of the newer FEHB plans reimburse for a good portion of your Part B premiums – in essence, you will have an “FEHB/Medicare Wrap-Around” arrangement with regular recurring premiums. Your monthly total premiums for FEHB and Medicare will often be equivalent to or less than what you are paying for FEHB coverage alone, but with no further out-of-pocket costs for your care.
By: Marc S. Levine, Esq.
Published: December, 2021
What are some of the practical considerations when a loved one dies? A lot of estate planning is about planning for low-probability / high-impact events – such as an early or unexpected death, as well as planning for the reality that all of us will pass at some point. This is one of the most important aspects of what we do – helping people navigate what can be a very complicated and often upsetting maze of what has to be done after someone dies.
By: Bob Braunstein, Federal Benefits Specialist
Published: November, 2021
Believe it or not, there was a time when the calculation of Federal retirement annuities made no distinction between part-time work and full-time work. Under the old Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS), you could retire after the same time as one with the same number of years who had worked full-time. And, even though you had worked fewer hours, your annuity would have been the same as it would have been had you always worked full-time. This inherent inequity – paying the same annuity to those who work fewer hours due to part-time work schedules – led to the Office of Personnel Management’s (OPM) changing its annuity calculation rules. The change became effective on April 7, 1986, and created “part-time proration,” which reduces retirement annuities.
By: Vanessa Craddock, Federal Benefits Specialist
Published: October 2021
By: Kaitlin Yardley, CFP®
Published: September, 2021
By: Michael Townshend
Published: August 2021
Many of our readers in the Federal workforce, have shared with us their concerns about retiring, even though they may have confidence in their financial preparations. So, what is it that they fear about the prospect of retirement? For many, it is the simple question, “What in the world will I DO with myself and my newly found free time?”
By: Bob Braunstein, Federal Benefits Specialist
Published: June 2021
When the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS) was introduced as the alternative to the original Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) in the mid-1980s, it was touted as a more flexible and portable program – which, in fact, it is. Instead of a pension-only retirement plan that required staying in Federal service for almost 42 years to gain the maximum entitlement, FERS offers the following flexibilities:
Published: May 2021
By: Maureen Wilkin, Federal Benefits Specialist
By: Karen Schaeffer, CFP®
Published: April 2021
By: Tom O’Rourke
Published: March 2021
By: Brian Kurrus, CFP®
Published: February 2021
Published: November 2020
By: Bob Braunstein, Federal Benefits Specialist