Although active employees will be able to start or increase
Federal Employees Group Life Insurance coverage in the open
season that will run during September, there are circumstances
in which the coverage will never take effect, the Office of
Personnel Management has said. The effective date of the
elections will not be for another year, until the first pay
period of September 2005. Thus, an employee who makes an
election during the open season but leaves federal service
before the new coverage becomes effective, it will be as if
he or she never made the election. The individual could
convert the old level of coverage to a private plan but not
the new level. Similarly, if an employee dies before next
September, benefits will be paid only on the old coverage.
Further, those who retire before September 2010 will not be
able to carry the higher coverage into retirement, since the
law requires that coverage be in place for five years before retirement, or from the first opportunity to elect coverage
