Why You Should think Divorce When Married or Getting Married

March 3, 2018

Federal employees or individuals that have plans to marry a federal employee should begin thinking about other things apart from honeymoon locations and wedding guest lists. Thinking divorce in such a moment might sound like a crazy idea, but it is just a matter of being practical and proactive.

Nobody gets married expecting a divorce, but the reality of the matter is that your marriage can come to an end at some point. The following is a true story of what can happen when a federal employee divorces a partner;

A federal employee divorced his wife in 2001. His wife agreed only to receive part of the deferral annuity during divorce mediation because her ex-husband was sick and in need of money. In this agreement, his son from a previous relationship and the ex-wife would not receive full benefits of is FEGLI life insurance plan.

She argued that the partial FEGLI benefit should be calculated based on what she would have received as survivor annuity over time. According to the court judgment, the ex-wife would receive verification of life insurance that includes 43.29 percent ($200,000) of the FEGLI. In this case, the assignment would be irrevocable.

A Designation of Benefits with a stamp for the Office of Personnel Management was given to the ex-wife in 2001 when she claimed that she only had the divorce decree and the form. The two rarely spoke to each other in the next ten years. He later died, and the ex-wife only learned about the death after one year.

When she visited the OPM office to claim the FEGLI benefits, she was told that someone had already claimed the benefits. She also learned that there was a change of designation in 2003 and she would only get the “death packet’. The OPM told her to present legal documents indicating that she was another beneficiary.

However, she had to prepare for a fight with the insurance company as the OPM had come up with new tight rules concerning annuity payments as a result of divorce. He would face access issues with the possibility of missing divorce records. In fact, it turned out that her file was not present and this meant that the ex-wife would not find the going easy.

Divorced spouses have to pay full premium to receive life insurance, survivor annuity, or the federal health insurance plan (FEHBP). Therefore, it is important to discuss such benefits while still married to avoid possible complications.