Expert’s View

If you are a federal civilian employee who is a member of the armed forces reserve or the National Guard …More

As a retiring federal employee, you can elect a survivor benefit for your spouse. In fact, by law you have …More

OPM is on the hot seat for what Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) called its scandalously wasteful and unacceptable processing of …More

Last week I wrote about the Windfall Elimination Provision and how it affects the Social Security benefit of anyone who …More

If you are a CSRS-covered employee (either CSRS or CSRS Offset), there are two provisions of law that can negatively …More

What role Social Security plays in your retirement depends on which retirement system you’re in.   If you are a …More

One of the little known features of federal employment is the Voluntary Contributions Program, an investment opportunity that is only …More

On December 31, 2009, the Office of Personnel management published a number of changes, clarifications and corrections to the Federal …More

One nice feature of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act 2009 was that it put $250 into the pockets of …More

Retirees and survivors who have elected to be covered by Medicare Part B are confused. That’s because some of them …More

What a year this is turning out to be. Employees are being held to an average 2 percent increase in …More

Heads up, retirees. There’s a new law in town: Public Law 111-84, which allows federal agencies to waive the former …More

Another of the benefits flowing from Public Law 111-84 is that FERS employees who left government, took a refund of …More

Now that the Federal Employees Health Benefits program open season is over, employees, retirees and survivors have made their choice …More

In a recent column I talked about two kinds of dates that are important to you as a federal employee: …More

Well, the day has at last arrived. Under Public Law 111-84, FERS employees can now get credit for their unused …More

Every once in a while a court case comes along that has me wondering what the world is coming to. …More

While there are probably a number of things that could be said about the dental and vision parts of this …More

This year’s Federal Benefits Open Season runs from Monday, November 10 through Monday, December 14.During this five-week period, your will …More

We live in a world where dates seem to control our lives: birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, days when bills or taxes …More

Federal employees and retirees have been hoping for changes in the laws that govern their lives. And more often than …More

Anyone who is now enrolled in the federal Long-term Care Insurance program – or has thought of doing so – …More

Over the past five weeks, I’ve described the criteria you must meet to be eligible for disability retirement, how to …More

Last week I explained how the workers’ compensation program administered by OWCP can be an alternative to disability retirement. This …More

Over the past five weeks, we’ve explored OPM’s disability retirement program in depth, from how you qualify through the way …More

Last week I explained how disability benefits are calculated for CSRS employees. This time I’ll do the same for those …More

You may be eligible for disability retirement if you are so disabled by disease or injury that you aren’t able …More

There are many forms that employees, retirees, and survivors need to fill out to deal with retirement, health and life …More

There’s been a lot of talk in the press and on the Hill about how the cost of prescription drugs …More

As you might expect, employees often ask me to tell them the best date to retire. My standard answer is, …More