Marriage: Wait until Retirement or Not?

March 18, 2018

Should I wait until retirement to get married?

Being in a non-standard relationship gets confusing- especially when your retirement is coming up. Many soon-to-be-retirees find themselves in this situation- they have been in a relationship for a long time and they’re considering moving to the next level, but should you wait until after you’ve gotten the stress of retirement over with?

The answer is actually an emphatic ‘no’. For the most part, although your life is your own and no two cases are exactly the same, there are a plethora of protections that your spouse will receive when they marry you under FERS that will go away as soon as you are retired.

Firstly, spouses can only be added to your FEHB if you are married. As long as your spouse is covered, they can continue being covered by FEHB after your death. A survivor’s benefit can also be a possible option. If you have been working under FERS for at least 10 years and you have been married for just 9 months, it is an easy process. After retirement, there is still a possibility of getting a spouse covered under your survivor’s benefit, but it can be much more expensive. If you choose to not get married at all, there is the possibility of an insurable interest survivor benefit- but this can be expensive and benefits can be much reduced.

In the case that you die before getting married, or even if you get married for less than nine months and pass away, all of these benefits are almost impossible to impossible for your significant other to receive.

There are many questions and a lot of confusion about how these benefits apply, even for spouses. Electing a survivor’s annuity is an important thing to consider- it can provide a significant portion of your annuity to your spouse even after you die. The cost is comparably negligible- the portion that your spouse can receive can be up to 55% for a portion of your annuity worth 5% to 10%.

If you have more questions, there are several options available. The main official government resource to find out more information is here: https://www.opm.gov/retirement-services/fers-information/ , but there are many difficult questions that are necessary to answer that can’t be answered by just research. For questions like this, there are several other resources available: for instance, to effectively cover your spouse, an option to consider is withdrawal from the TSP plan. You can consult with experts at http://tsp-withdrawal.com to learn more about better options, or simply consult a financial expert with experience in financial retirement.