A reduction or cancellation is effective the first of the month after the month in which OPM receives your request. Image: tomertu/Shutterstock.com
Unless you have assigned your Federal Employees Group Life Insurance coverage, you may reduce or cancel it at any time, including after retirement. However, as a retiree you cannot increase your FEGLI coverage unless you are reemployed by the government.
You may wish to cancel it, for example, because a potential need that you were insuring against no longer exists—for example, your children are now all through college or your home is now paid off—or because you decide to take out insurance through another source that better fits your need, such as a policy that builds cash value, which is not available through FEGLI.
If you cancel your Basic life insurance, you are canceling all your Optional insurance as well. If you elected the 50 percent reduction or no reduction schedule upon retirement for your Basic life insurance, you may cancel this additional coverage at any time. You may also reduce (or cancel) the amount of your Option B insurance, if you have this coverage, or cancel any or all other Optional life insurance coverages you may have.
You also can reduce the amount of coverage for reasons including the increasing cost as you move up through five-year age brackets that make coverage ever more expensive.
Generally, a reduction or cancellation is effective the first of the month after the month in which OPM receives your request. You will not receive a refund of any premiums paid through the end of the month in which OPM receives your request.
However, if you are canceling Option C, the cancellation can be retroactive to the first of the month after the month in which you no longer have an eligible family member. (When you look for your premiums to change, remember that the annuity payment you receive on the first business day of the month pays annuity and insurance premiums for the preceding month.)
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See also,
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The Best Ages for Federal Employees to Retire
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