SBP Open Enrollment Balance Sheet

The Military Officers Association of America (see previous item) has calculated that an E-7 with 20 years of service who retired one year ago and enrolls in the Survivor Benefits Plan this month for full retired-pay coverage would incur a fee of almost $5,000. An O-5 with similar service would have to pay about $10,500. If they retired six months ago, they would have to pay $4,000 and $8,400, respectively. Although a MOAA official said “we were taken aback” by the Defense Department’s fees, he added that “the key concern is to protect more potential survivors under the SBP program whose benefit value for widows age 62 and older will rise almost 60 percent over the next three years (from 35 percent of SBP-covered retired pay to 55 percent of covered retired pay).”