{"id":147447,"date":"2025-08-15T09:26:21","date_gmt":"2025-08-15T09:26:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/147447\/"},"modified":"2025-08-15T09:26:21","modified_gmt":"2025-08-15T09:26:21","slug":"retirement-season-is-in-full-swing-and-weve-got-smart-tips-for-federal-employees-navigating-the-process","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/147447\/","title":{"rendered":"Retirement season is in full swing, and we\u2019ve got smart tips for federal employees navigating the process"},"content":{"rendered":"

Terry Gerton <\/strong>Hey, I want to start with a listener issue. We\u2019ve talked a lot about managing your pensions and purchasing power, but we don\u2019t often talk about it from the perspective of folks who might have retired at a lower grade. And so a lot of them are experiencing this loss of purchasing power as healthcare inflation outstrips COLA. Can you talk a little bit about some management techniques that you would recommend to help kind of balance that?<\/p>\n

Tammy Flanagan <\/strong>Sure. Yeah, I know we kind of get jaded in the D.C. area because there are so many high-grade positions and it seems like the average federal employee is making well over $100,000 a year. But you go outside of the Beltway and that\u2019s not necessarily the case, because I have met people in military installations who are working at GS7, GS5 level positions and they\u2019re hard workers and they do end up working 20 or 30 years, but yet their pension, especially under FERS, you figure if your high-3 is $60,000 and you have 30 years of service, that\u2019s only an $18,000 a year retirement. So when you have to start deducting health insurance and dental and vision and pay for Medicare out of your Social Security, there\u2019s not a whole lot left. And I think that was the gist of this listener\u2019s comment. So I was looking at the health benefit premiums and I know a lot of employees, a lot of retirees have difficulty thinking ever of changing their health plan. But there\u2019s a big difference between, let\u2019s say Blue Cross standard option, which for a self-only plan is now running $378 a month, versus one of the Aetna plans that work really well with Medicare, if this listener is at the Medicare age yet, and for example, Aetna Medicare Advantage plan is $115 a month. That\u2019s less than one third of the cost of Blue Cross. And this plan will give that listener back $125 a month towards the cost of Part B, almost covering the cost. So there\u2019s ways you can manage those lower retirement benefits, and hey, for that matter, higher retirement benefits. Why should anybody pay more than they have to for really good health insurance?<\/p>\n

]]><\/p>\n

Terry Gerton <\/strong>That\u2019s really helpful advice and so for our listeners out there I hope they\u2019ll take that to heart and I really appreciate you doing that research for us. Next question is something you and I have talked about, and it\u2019s coming to fruition now and in the next couple of months, is an accelerated number of federal retirees. We talked about the online retirement application. How\u2019s that going right now?<\/p>\n

Tammy Flanagan <\/strong>Yeah, well, I\u2019ve been hearing from people who have now filed their online retirement application. Some of them had contacted me earlier saying, oh, I already sent in my paper forms and now they\u2019re telling me I\u2019ve got to submit it again electronically, why is this? And they were griping. But then I heard back from a few of them saying, hey, this was actually smoother than I thought it would be. It seems like this is going to help avoid mistakes, which I think it will. And I think there\u2019s some checks and balances there. So when you\u2019re filling out the online application, it\u2019s going to prompt you to go to each section that\u2019s necessary for you to fill out. It\u2019s going to tell you what attachments you need to put on that application, such as your marriage certificate, or possibly a divorce decree or military records. So I think all in all, it is going to save time on the front end of the process, meaning that the employee\u2019s going to have a better experience submitting the application, the agency is going to also have those same checks and balances when they submit the whole package to OPM after that employee retires. So I truly think it will save some time in the front end, avoiding some of those common mistakes that we typically see, like forgetting to sign the application, or you didn\u2019t check a certain box, or the agency not sending health benefits information, for instance, they just didn\u2019t get it in time or whatever. So I think that will help. I don\u2019t know how much it\u2019s going to solve the problem of the actual processing for employees who have really complicated career histories or divorces, or they\u2019re under something like Civil Service Offset or law enforcement or they have part-time service. So that problem is still going to be there. So some of those employees will still wait three months, if not longer in some cases, for their retirement to be processed. But those simple cases, those straightforward, clean cases as I like to call them, those should go quicker, I think people will be really pleased to see how quickly their retirement might be processed now.<\/p>\n

Terry Gerton <\/strong>I\u2019m speaking with Tammy Flanagan. She\u2019s a principal at Retire Federal. Any helpful advice for folks who might have been out of government a while before they submit this package? You\u2019re talking, I think, from a perspective of someone who\u2019s just now leaving federal service and has their agency HR group to help them. What if it\u2019s been a while and now they\u2019re just submitting that package?<\/p>\n

Tammy Flanagan <\/strong>Yeah, we are seeing not only people who have already left, but people who are in the process of taking the deferred resignation who are not necessarily going to be applying for retirement. These are the folks who might be eligible for a deferred retirement, or maybe they\u2019re eligible for what we call the MRA +10, but they want to avoid the age reduction, so they\u2019re going to postpone the application. In that situation, you\u2019re kind of on your own. You\u2019re going to fill out the old paper form, which you can fill out electronically, but you still have to print it on paper and mail it to OPM. You\u2019re on your own with not getting that assistance from HR, which a lot of employees still do receive. So you\u2019ve got to be really careful to read the instructions carefully. If you haven\u2019t left federal service yet, those folks who are leaving the end of September, be sure to take as much documentation as you can, proof that you\u2019ve had health benefits for five years, your beginning and ending dates of your federal career, any time your work schedule changed. You want to be able to have the evidence of that career, that health benefit coverage, so that when the time comes to apply and receive that benefit, you get what you\u2019ve earned. And if you don\u2019t, you have something to argue with because you have all the proof of it.<\/p>\n

Terry Gerton <\/strong>Yep, I can only tell you from my case, because I applied for mine earlier this year after having been away from government for a while. I had my whole personnel file and I was able to find all the documents, but then it went super quick. It was easy online and OPM settled it, but I might\u2019ve been ahead of the retirement wave. What are you seeing now in terms of volume? Is OPM able to keep up with the number of retirees they\u2019re facing right now?<\/p>\n

Tammy Flanagan <\/strong>Well, it\u2019ll be interesting because in May and also at the end of June, there were huge numbers of retirements, like three times the number of that same month in 2024, so OPM is getting deluged right now with all of these applications coming in much earlier than they would have expected. And I think part of that had to do with the threats that were included in the Big, Beautiful Bill proposals that never came to fruition, but we were so scared that they were going to happen before July 4th. So a lot of people pulled the plug and said, I\u2019m going to get out of here a little bit before September 30th so I can still have my high-3 and all the things that we do still have because none of those were in the bill that became law. So yeah, I think OPM is going to maybe slow down a little bit especially, like I said, on those more complicated cases because those are going to start to pile up. The easier ones, just like with anybody who has work on their desk, if you see something that you can get done pretty quickly, you\u2019ll get that off your desk to kind of make your numbers look a little better. So I think the simple cases will still go through pretty quickly. But I think those complicated cases, you\u2019ve got to be careful. I think it\u2019s going to take longer. You\u2019ve got to really look it over when you get your benefit to make sure you\u2019re getting everything that you\u2019ve earned throughout your career. So just really review everything carefully before you sign it or before you just accept it.<\/p>\n

Terry Gerton <\/strong>That\u2019s really important advice. And I want to take retirement kind of one step farther because as you go through the retirement process, you\u2019re making some decisions about benefits for your survivors. What do survivors of federal retirees need to know in terms of making sure that they close out that case correctly?<\/p>\n

]]><\/p>\n

Tammy Flanagan <\/strong>I think it\u2019s important for the retiree to leave behind instructions. I know no one wants to think about what happens after they\u2019re gone, but to really help your family, whether it\u2019s your spouse or your children or your sister, whoever it is that\u2019s going to handle those affairs, let them know that there\u2019s the Thrift Savings Plan balance. Let them know that there\u2019s either a survivor benefit or maybe just your last retirement check. How do they get that? Because you\u2019re not going to get your last check because it\u2019s always paid the month after you die. So leave those instructions, leave OPM\u2019s number. In fact, retirees \u2014 like you got this too, Terry, I\u2019m sure that retirement booklet \u2014 and in the back of that booklet are all the numbers you need and all the websites that you\u2019ll need to review. So even if that\u2019s the only thing you leave behind, that\u2019s going to help your surviving spouse claim the benefit with OPM, retrieve that money from the TSP account or understand how that works when there\u2019s money left in the Thrift, and even to the point of applying for Social Security survivor benefits or widow\u2019s benefits. So it\u2019s important, I think, to have that conversation at some point. Find a peaceful, relaxing time to bring it up and sit down and just show them where this stuff is. I remember when my mom was getting older and she took me in the bedroom to that box that she had in the closet and told me what was in it and what I might need to do when the time comes and I\u2019m so glad that she did.<\/p>\n

Terry Gerton <\/strong>That is so important. So, as we think about cleaning out our basement so our children don\u2019t have to do it, having those kinds of conversations is one thing that can happen at the same time.<\/p>\n

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