FEGLI and the Living Benefit by Paul Kalra
Paul Kalra, FEGLI and the Living Benefit
Paul Kalra is a financial planner and federal retirement expert in Lake Forest, California.Although most people purchase life insurance for the death benefit protection that it provides, many may not realize that there are other ways in which this financial tool can be used in taking care of additional needs while the insured is still alive.
Commonly referred to as “living benefits,” some life insurance policies today will allow an insured to access the death benefit funds if he or she meets certain criteria, such as being diagnosed with a terminal illness. Today’s FEGLI (Federal Employees’ Group Life Insurance) plans may allow a participant to access this type of feature.
Should the enrollee have a documented medical prognosis whereby he or she has a life expectancy of nine months or less, then they may elect to access a lump sum of cash from their FEGLI plan.
The amount of the lump sum that can be accessed is equal to the participant’s Basic life insurance amount, plus any amount of extra benefit for those who are under the age of 45, that is in effect nine months following the date that the Office of Federal Employee’s Group Life Insurance receives the completed living benefits claim form.1
It is important to note that when living benefits are accessed from a FEGLI policy – or from any life insurance policy – the amount that is taken from the policy will reduce the amount of funds that will be payable to the policy’s beneficiary at the time of the insured’s death.
In the case of living benefits on a FEGLI policy, an annuitant is not eligible to elect only a partial amount of benefit from the plan. Therefore, while an employee may opt to take just a portion of their insurance funds, if an annuitant elects living benefits, his or her survivors will not be eligible for any Basic insurance benefits at the time of the individual’s death.
More about Paul Kalra, CFP, ChFC, CLU:
Paul Kalra has been providing financial services for over 25 years to doctors, business owners and others nearing or in retirement. After a successful career with John Hancock Financial Services,in 2002, Mr. Kalra founded his own firm, Signature America Financial Planning Services, Inc. in Lake Forest, CA.
In his practice as a financial planner, Paul Kalra has found that when people are nearing their retirement years, they are faced with confounding decisions about their retirement plans, 401(k)’s, IRA’s, Social Security, Medicare, life insurance, wealth-preservation and estate planning. What motivated him to focus his practice on helping people in their 50’s and 60’s was when Mr. Kalra began facing such decisions himself and realized that the answers would have been very tough if he were not a financial planner.
How Do TSP Investments Compare? by Paul Kalra
Paul Kalra is a financial planner and federal retirement expert in Lake Forest, California.TSP Investment Advice from Paul Kalra
Despite the roller coaster stock market over the past few years, it seems that, on average, the account balances in the TSP (Thrift Savings Plan) appear to be going up. The participants who assumed more risk – or at least those who seemed to do so – by going with the S and I funds, attained a return of just under 5% for the first half of 2015. And, those who stuck it out with a bit more volatility in foreign stocks were rewarded with just under a 6.5% return during the same time frame.1
By almost year-end 2015, FERS held an average balance of nearly $117,000 in their TSP plan, with an average Roth account balance for these same individuals of just over $7,100.2 If you are a CSRS employee, the average was closer to just under $119,000 in the TSP plan, with a Roth balance of just a tad over $11,500.3
How is the Money Distributed?
In terms of where the funds are being distributed by TSP plan holders, there seems to be a larger percentage of allocation being placed in both the G Fund and the C Fund, at 35% and 28% respectively.4
The remainder of the TSP fund balances sort out as follows (as of November 2015):
- L Funds – 17%
- F Fund – 5%
- I Fund – 5%
- S Fund – 10%5
Tracking Your TSP Investments
If you have money invested in the Thrift Savings Plan and you want to see how you’re doing – or even if you just want to check a hypothetical example – Check out the Thrift Savings Plan official page for information on TSP Fund prices and historical performance.
More about Paul Kalra, CFP, ChFC, CLU:
Paul Kalra has been providing financial services for over 25 years to doctors, business owners and others nearing or in retirement. After a successful career with John Hancock Financial Services,in 2002, Mr. Kalra founded his own firm, Signature America Financial Planning Services, Inc. in Lake Forest, CA.
In his practice as a financial planner, Paul Kalra has found that when people are nearing their retirement years, they are faced with confounding decisions about their retirement plans, 401(k)’s, IRA’s, Social Security, Medicare, life insurance, wealth-preservation and estate planning. What motivated him to focus his practice on helping people in their 50’s and 60’s was when Mr. Kalra began facing such decisions himself and realized that the answers would have been very tough if he were not a financial planner.
Making the Most of TSP Contributions by Paul Kalra
Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) Advice from Paul Kalra
Paul Kalra, CFP, ChFC, CLUIf you are a FERS (Federal Employees Retirement System) employee who contributes to the TSP (Thrift Savings Plan) each year, there are some important things to know when it comes to making your contributions. This is because maxing out your deposits too early in the year could actually put you at risk of losing some of your matching contributions.
Each year, the government can contribute up to 5% of your salary to the TSP plan in a number of different ways. These include:
- Agency automatic 1% contributions
- Dollar-for-dollar contributions (on the first 3% of pay that you contribute)
- 50 cents on the dollar (on the next 2% of pay that you contribute)
While it is a good strategy to obtain as much of the employer matching as possible, because there is an annual limit on TSP plan contributions, by “maxing out” your annual contributions too early in the year, employer matching contributions can be lost by not making any deposits after the plan has met its annual contribution limit.
Things to Consider
When it comes to making your annual TSP contributions, there are several important factors to consider. For example, you need to be aware of when you actually reach you annual contribution limit for the year. This is because when this limit has been reached, your employee contributions into the plan must be suspended for the rest of the year. In fact, the TSP system won’t even allow any contribution by an employee to be processed if it will cause the total amount of deposits for that year to exceed the annual limitation.
In addition, if you have reached your annual contribution limit prior to year-end – and further deposits have been suspended – this also means that agency matching contributions will also be suspended. This is because these contributions are based on the amount of contribution that an employee makes into the TSP in each pay period. Therefore, if you aren’t making any contributions, then there won’t be anything to match.
It is important to note, however, that if you are a FERS employee, your agency is still required to make an automatic 1% contribution – even if your employee contribution and agency matching contribution has been suspended.
More about Paul Kalra, CFP, ChFC, CLU:
Paul Kalra has been providing financial services for over 25 years to doctors, business owners and others nearing or in retirement. After a successful career with John Hancock Financial Services,in 2002, Mr. Kalra founded his own firm, Signature America Financial Planning Services, Inc. in Lake Forest, CA.
In his practice as a financial planner, Paul Kalra has found that when people are nearing their retirement years, they are faced with confounding decisions about their retirement plans, 401(k)’s, IRA’s, Social Security, Medicare, life insurance, wealth-preservation and estate planning. What motivated him to focus his practice on helping people in their 50’s and 60’s was when Mr. Kalra began facing such decisions himself and realized that the answers would have been very tough if he were not a financial planner.
