Planning to Retire Soon?

Healthcare: To be eligible to continue your Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) insurance in retirement, you must hold five consecutive years of FEHB coverage immediately before retiring. This includes:

• FEHB coverage you hold through your employer
• Coverage under a family member’s FEHB plan
• Coverage through a military health program like TRICARE, CHAMPUS, or CHAMPVA. If you are enrolled in a military health program, you must in an FEHB plan before you retire.

Life insurance: To be eligible to continue your Federal Employees' Group Life Insurance (FEGLI) coverage in retirement, you must hold FEGLI coverage for five consecutive years immediately before you retire.

If you are eligible, your options are to:

• Keep the same level of coverage you carried continuously in the five years before your retirement date
• Reduce your coverage (for example, if you carried Option B coverage, you can choose to reduce the number of multiples you carry)
• Choose not to continue your coverage.

Make sure your electronic official personnel folder (eOPF) includes records from all of your previous federal jobs. If it doesn’t, work with your HR office to retrieve those records.

Depending on your situation, you may need to submit additional documentation with your retirement application. Give yourself enough time to collect these documents.  

Mistakes on the FEGLI form, which determines the life insurance you’ll have after retirement, frequently cause application processing delays. Here are the most common errors and how to avoid them.  

Error: Unsigned, incomplete, or corrected form 

To avoid this error: 

• Complete the form electronically (instead of by hand), then print, sign, and date the completed form.
• If you want to continue Option B and/or Option C into retirement, be sure to enter both the number of multiples you want to keep (“No Reduction”) and the number of multiples you do not want to keep (“Full Reduction”) after age 65 in question 11 (for Option B) and 13 (for Option C). Don’t leave a reduction line blank!

Error: Choosing more coverage than allowed  

To avoid this error:  

• Verify the amount of life insurance coverage you are eligible to continue after retirement. To continue life insurance after retirement you must have been insured for the 5 years immediately before you retire. Read more about continuing life insurance into retirement.
• Double-check your response to each optional insurance coverage question:
• Mark “No” if you are eligible to continue an option into retirement but do not want to.
• Mark “I don’t have” if you are not eligible to continue an option into retirement, or if you did not have it during your employment. 
• If you choose to continue Option B or Option C into retirement, complete both reduction lines (Line 11 for Option B, Line 13 for Option C). The two lines added together must be equal to or less than the number of multiples you are eligible to continue in retirement.

Error: Not submitting the SF 2818 

To avoid this error:  

• If you are enrolled in FEGLI coverage at the time of retirement, be sure to complete the SF 2818 form and submit it to your HR Office.

Error: Insufficient proof of health benefits during employment  

To be eligible to continue your health benefits into retirement, you must provide documentation that you maintained continuous health insurance coverage under FEHB, TRICARE, CHAMPUS, or CHAMPVA in the five years leading up to your retirement.  

To avoid this error:  

• Verify that you’ve maintained FEHB coverage continuously for the 5-year period immediately before retirement and keep personal copies of your agency-validated FEHB forms.
• If you had coverage under TRICARE, CHAMPUS, or CHAMPVA during the 5-year period before retirement, 
• provide documentation verifying coverage dates.
• ensure that you are enrolled in FEHB coverage before your retirement date.
• If you had coverage under a family member’s FEHB enrollment during the 5-year period before retirement, provide copies of the SF 2809s validated by that family member’s HR Office.
• When completing the FEHB election form (SF 2809) during Open Season or due to a Qualifying Life Event, be sure to fill out both Part B and Part C when making enrollment changes.

Error: Not submitting a marriage certificate copy 

To avoid this error:  

• Find or get a copy of your marriage certificate before you retire.
• If you’re married at the time you retire, give your HR office a copy of your marriage certificate, regardless of what survivor benefits you choose. 
• If your marriage certificate is not in English, get a certified translation of it before you retire. 

Error: Corrected SF 3107-2 (Spousal Consent form)  

If you choose anything other than a maximum survivor benefit for your spouse, you must submit a complete SF 3107-2. OPM does not accept forms that have been altered or corrected (for example, with crossed-out or whited-out mistakes), so you must provide a clean SF 3107-2. 

To avoid this error:  

• Proofread the prepared SF 3107-2 carefully – before it is signed by your spouse and notarized! – to make sure it matches your survivor annuity election in Section D of SF 3107 (your retirement application form). 
• Bring at least two copies of the prepared Spousal Consent form with you and your spouse to the notary, just in case the notary makes a mistake on the first copy.
• Be sure the notary (and your spouse) understand that this form cannot have any corrective actions or alterations. 

Error: Not submitting DD 214  

To avoid this error:  

• Submit copies of DD 214s (official military service records) for all periods of potentially creditable military service, even if you are not paying a military service deposit. 
• Be sure each DD 214 includes your active-duty start and end dates, your character of service (i.e., honorable), and any lost time.

Error: Missing or illegible information on DD 214 

To avoid this error:  

• Verify that any official military service documentation you submit is legible in all sections.
• Make sure that each DD 214 you submit includes your active-duty start and end dates, your character of service (i.e., honorable), and any lost time. 
• If you are submitting a document other than a DD 214, make sure it includes your active-duty service, active-duty start and end dates, character of service (i.e., honorable), and any lost time.