As per Dennis Snoozy, Myth-conception: Most retirees are under the misconception that they must wait until a Federal Employees Group Life Insurance (FEGLI) ‘s open season to get more life insurance under the FEGLI program.
Reality: To acquire more FEGLI
coverage, you either experience a Qualifying Life Event (QLE) or provide medical evidence of insurability. The medical team will examine you, complete your form, and send it to the office of the FEGLI.
Many employees did not sign up for more life insurance through the FEGLI program when the opportunity was available to them, according to the writer. Probably, if you are among those people, you will be happy to know that it may not be too late if you wish to avail of this opportunity. However, new employees face some restrictions to sign up for the FEGLI program to get more coverage because there are certain inherited limitations on those opportunities. FEGLI seasons have only opened a few times since 1954, which was very rare. So due to the rarity of the FEGLI Seasons, only a few new employees want to join the FEGLI program to get more coverage.
However, there are two easy ways to get more FEGLI coverage:
- To provide physical evidence to ensure your eligibility for basic insurance, or
- With a qualifying life event, you can get more coverage.
In the next sections, we will describe these two points in more detail.
1. Providing medical evidence to ensure your eligibility for a life insurance
Under the existing policy by FEGLI, if one year has gone by from the last date of your efficacious waiver of life insurance coverage, you are allowed to give a piece of adequate medical information at your own risk using the request for life insurance (SF 2822). If you had elected less than the maximum FEGLI’s coverage when it was available to you, it means that you have acted in a way the system was not designed for by waiving the coverage effectively that you didn’t elect. So, as long as one year has passed since you last signed for an SF 2817 election form, you can give a new request to apply for life insurance.
Dennis Snoozy said However, approaching your HR office would be the best choice so that it can provide you a complete and error-free form with reliable information to proceed further. It is also essential to send this form to your physician for achieving medical evidence, which is necessary to join the Federal employees’ group life insurance program. After examining this form, your physician will send it directly to the office of the FEGLI. This process is necessary for ensuring the determination of insurability.
If you want to get basic insurance, you must complete the SF 2817 life Insurance Election by submitting a form to the OFEGLI office. Your Human Resource office will tell you about the decision of the OFEGLI, whether it approves or denies your request. So, your HR office must receive your form within 31 days from the date of OFEGLI’s approval.
However, if your request has been approved, the new coverage you have requested will be discussed in detail, as mentioned below.
- You’re enrolled in basic life insurance by your HR office on your first day in a pay and duty status on or after the date of OFEGLI’s approval (as long as you are in a pay and duty status within 31 days of OFEGLI’s approval.)
- Sign for basic Option A and/or Option B (ADDITIONAL) coverage (or increased multiples of Option B coverage), be sure to mark Option B, which will be effective on your first day of pay and duty status after the approval of your physical form.
- You cannot be enlisted for Option C by providing the medical evidence because it is insurance for your family. Therefore, it is also known as family optional insurance and can only be elected by having a life event like divorce, marriage, and death, etc.
On the other hand, if your application of basic life insurance has been refused, then you may have to wait another year to find out the physical reason that might have caused this denial.
2. Electing life insurance for a Qualifying Life Event (QLE)
According to Dennis Snoozy Family optional insurance can only be elected if you have a life event like marriage, divorce, death of a spouse, or adding an eligible child to your family. With a FEGLI “qualifying life events,” you can enroll for life insurance equal to $10,000 (Option A) or life insurance equal to 1,2,3,4 or 5 times of your annual salary (Option B) or enroll for or increase in the multiples of Option C. The Human Resource office must receive your new SF 2817 form within 60 days after the qualifying life event.
Legally married couples had a special opportunity to make changes to the FEGLI coverage. According to the recent view of the supreme court, the office of the personnel management succeeded in recognizing all marriages irrespective of their gender, applicable since June 26, 2013. The supreme court took this initiative mainly to allow same-sex couples to take advantage of the new benefits which were available to them till August 26. Same-sex couples can make changes in the FEGLI program only if they are legally married and involved in the acquisition of stepchildren.
