Your Life Insurance Options as a Federal Employee
Part of being a government employee is having a variety of great benefits, covering you during your working days and your retirement. However, there is one gap in this regard—what happens when you are gone. Life insurance is a tough conversation to have, but is one that needs discussing, especially if you have a family or other dependents counting on you. Knowing the life insurance landscape as a federal employee is key to making sure you get the best plan possible.
The Need for Life Insurance
Many people skirt life insurance thinking that their savings and financial prudence in life will be enough to leave a solid platform for their loved ones. This is a noble impulse, but isn’t entirely accurate. For one, there is always the potential of suddenly losing you before those savings are ready. There are several other reasons why, even if you live to a healthy age, you still want to invest in life insurance, beyond the desire to compensate for the lack of income.
Generational wealth is a great way to ensure that the next generation of dependents you have will receive something to build their own financial future from, even if you don’t have a lot of assets of your own. Buying a life insurance policy and making them beneficiaries can accomplish this goal. In addition, this can also work in the other direction, by providing a way to pay off outstanding debt. Mortgages, car loans, credit cards – all of these debts can create extra financial baggage for your family in the event of your passing. All of these factors combine to give you a greater sense of why life insurance is so important.
What Are Your Options?
As a start, all federal employees are automatically enrolled in the basic version of the Federal Employee Group Life Insurance (FEGLI) program. So long as you are employed and pay your premium, you will be covered. One appealing fact is that there are no medical exams or other limits to participation.
The basic version of FEGLI covers your salary, rounded up to the nearest thousand, plus $2,000. It will also include double the Basic insurance death benefit free of charge for those under 35, up until they hit 45 and the benefit is eliminated. You also have the option to make increases on your own, but this can only be done at certain times, including initial enrollment, family changes, and open enrollment periods. As a note, though, these periods are extremely rare.
If you are looking for more flexibility, it may make sense to look elsewhere, or take your basic FEGLI and combine it with some other coverage. If you choose to go for an alternative to FEGLI, you want it to be through an insurance provider you can trust, especially when you consider how important it is for the future of your family and loved ones. Secure Choice LLC is the perfect match. With our FEGLI alternative, federal employees can have coverage provided up until 100 years of age. You also have several other options, like keeping your coverage through retirement, and the ability to increase coverage for yourself and your spouse/dependents. Get in touch with us for more information on how we can protect your family’s financial future.
