Retirement: What is Your Agency’s Role in the Process?

March 25, 2019

[vc_row][vc_column width=”2/3″ el_class=”section section1″][vc_column_text]Planning ahead for retirement is always a smart move. Even if you’re close to retirement age already, you should utilize whatever time you have left and plan for the future.

To that end, let’s say you’re already in the midst of retiring. What is your employer or agency’s role in the process?

To be able to take advantage of your Federal Employees Group Life Insurance (FEGLI) or your Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) your office clerk in charge of personnel will have to receive your retirement papers, and then verify that the date you have chosen will line up with the distribution of benefits.

From there, your civilian and military service will be listed on a Certified Summary of Federal Service. Your personnel office should give you this if everything in the aforementioned paragraph checked out. Be sure to check your record to make sure all the information on it is correct.

Your personnel office should do the following as you approach your retirement date:

1. Move your Federal Employee Health Benefits to OPM, if you are still able to be covered.

2. Make your Federal Employees Group Life Insurance valid and move that to OPM, if you are still able to be covered.

3. Finish the certification for the personnel office section of your application of retirement.

4. Finalized the beneficiaries of your insurance that are in your OPF.

5. Separate you from military service using a Notification of Personnel Action

6. Send all of this to the payroll office of your agency.

From there, the payroll office should take care of the following:

1. After you retire, it will authorize your final salary payment in addition to paying out any money that you were owed from unused leave.

2. Authorize and cease the record of pay rates, services and unused leave time for your retirement fund. This is called the IRR (Individual Retirement Record.) The IRR cannot be closed for good until your final paycheck has been given out.

3. For the purpose of life insurance, it will authorize your yearly pay, if you are using the same life insurance plan throughout your retirement.

4. send the entire thing to OPM

Your payroll office number, the transmittal dates, the mailing dates, and your register number will be sent to you by your payroll office once your papers have been filed with the OPM. It would be wise to follow-up with the OPM if you need to check on your case or if there are any irregularities.

If your personnel office is understaffed, or if there are an unusually large number of retirement applications to file, the time the process takes could vary. High volume times, such as the beginning and end of the year, the office can get overwhelmed. But they should be able to give you a portion of your annuity in the meantime, if at all possible. This money can be used until the application has been finalized. Afterward, you’ll receive the corrected payment amount, and they will catch you up with the differential while you were on interim pay.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”36194″ img_size=”292×285″ style=”vc_box_shadow”][/vc_column][/vc_row]