As with FEGLI, you may or may not have designated a beneficiary for your TSP account. Image: Bengkel Kreatif/Shutterstock.com
If you are a federal employee when you get married, you’ll need to notify your personnel office. There are two good reasons. First, because the law requires you to provide a survivor annuity for your spouse. Second, because that notification will avoid any complications for your spouse if you die.
If you marry after retirement, whether you notify OPM about your marriage is up to you. There is no requirement that you provide a survivor annuity for your spouse. However, if you want to, you’ll have to do it within two years of the marriage. To pay for that benefit, there would be two reductions in your own annuity: the standard reduction to provide the survivor annuity, and a permanent actuarial reduction to pay the survivor benefit deposit.
Note: All the forms referenced below are available at www.opm.gov/forms except for the TSP designation of beneficiary form, which is accessible through the My Account section at www.tsp.gov.
Health insurance: If you get married and are already enrolled in the self and family option of the Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) program, contact your health plan and let them know that you have a new family member.
The rules are different if you were covered under a self only enrollment and want to change to either self plus one (or self and family, if you’ll also be covering a dependent child or children). If you weren’t enrolled in the FEHB program, you can do that now. You can make any of those enrollment changes from 31 days before the marriage to 60 days after by completing Standard Form 2809.On marriage, you’ll also have the option of changing from one FEHB plan or option to another.
Life insurance: If you are like most federal employees, you automatically enrolled in the Federal Employees’ Group Life Insurance program (FEGLI) when you were first hired. If you did, you may have filled out a designation of beneficiary form indicating who you wanted to get the proceeds of that policy if you died. When you get married, you likely will want to change that designation. Whether you are an employee or a retiree, you can do that by filling out an SF 2823. Marriage is a qualifying life event that allows you to newly enroll or to increase existing FEGLI coverage. Submit an SF 2817 to your human resources office within 60 days. If you never submitted a designation of beneficiary, your spouse will automatically be the first to get the proceeds under a standard order of precedence.
Thrift Savings Plan: As with FEGLI, you may or may not have designated a beneficiary for your TSP account (Form TSP-3). If you did, you likely will want to change it to make your spouse the sole, or at least partial, beneficiary. If you didn’t, a similar standard order of precedence applies under which your spouse would automatically be the first to get the proceeds.
In addition, review your Designation of Beneficiaries (SF 2808 (CSRS) or 3102 (FERS)) for any lump-sum payment that may be available after your death from your retirement system and make changes as needed.
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