June 18, 2008

 

This article concerns divorces and associated problems with Federal Employee Group Life Insurance (FEGLI).  For anyone who may be involved with divorce and the FEGLI issue, contact me at the email address or phone number listed on the Service Officer page of the NARFE Florida Federation web site and I will send you information about that.   

I’ll tell you first the bottom line on this and then I’ll follow with the story that led to this discovery. 

This is related to divorces for which court orders were filed with OPM prior to July 22, 1998.  THE COURT ORDERS ARE INVALID.  A certified copy of the court order can be resubmitted before the insured dies and that should be acceptable.

Now, the story:  A chapter service officer received an inquiry from a NARFE member whose former husband recently died.  Following the divorce, the court order ordering her ex-husband’s Federal Employee Group Life Insurance (FEGLI) to be left to their children was filed with OPM.  The FEGLI beneficiary did not reflect that and OPM told her they would pay according to the designation of beneficiary on the form and not the court ordered judgment.

The Chapter Service Officer emailed a copy of the member’s email to me with the comment that he thought OPM was supposed to follow court orders.  I really thought the same thing, so I researched it and found that a court order submitted prior to July 22, 1998 is invalid and OFEGLI cannot honor it.  A certified copy of the court order can be resubmitted before the insured dies and that should be acceptable.  It is too late for that in this case as the insured is deceased.

I passed this information along to the Chapter Service Officer.  I found it so unreasonable though, that I thought I might be misinterpreting it.  So, I emailed NARFE HQ, Retirement Benefits.  I received the following reply: “Before July 22, 1998 OPM did not honor provisions of court orders requiring annuitants to designate specific individuals for FEGLI. In 1989 such an order by a state court did not supersede Federal law which clearly set the order of precedence to be designated beneficiaries, spouse, children, etc. Back then it was up to the former spouse - not OPM - to make sure the annuitant complied with such provisions of the order and to take him back to court if he didn't.”

I recommended that the member who had the original inquiry, get legal assistance.  Service Officers are not in that business and in a case such as this, their findings should not be interpreted as the final word and lead to a possibility of abandoning a case that might prove successful if pursued.

If someone is now involved in a divorce, there is another option regarding the FEGLI.  The insurance can be assigned.  This takes control of the insurance away from the insured and assigns it to someone else.  For further information on divorces, see the Handbook for Attorneys on the OPM web site. Here’s the link http://www.opm.gov/ASD/pdf/ri83-116.pdf .  Federal Employees or Annuitants involved in divorce should have excellent legal assistance, preferably with attorney(s) familiar with OPM procedures.  As was pointed out above, court orders are at the state level, while OPM is at the Federal level.  So OPM must have in place their own rules rather than trying to comply with the different state’s rules 

These are links to divorce related OPM documents and one outside article:

In this link, the third paragraph after the bulleted ones is applicable.

http://www.opm.gov/insure/life/booklet/2004/federal/info7.asp#money

This is the link for the Handbook for Attorneys.  The insurance portion begins on page 123.  On page 124, the last paragraph and particularly the last sentence, has the details. 

http://www.opm.gov/ASD/pdf/ri83-116.pdf

This is a good one too.  It is from an outside source.  I have read some other articles by her and they are all good.  There is a paragraph down well into it that deals with assignment of the insurance and the responsibility of verifying it.

http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0506/051206rp.htm

This is a link to the FEGLI “Information for Retirees and Their Families” RI 76-12 PDF version.

http://www.opm.gov/insure/life/ri76-012.pdf

This is just the non-PDF online version of RI 76-12.

http://www.opm.gov/insure/life/fegli1.asp

If you have any questions, my contact information can be reached by using the BACK button above.

John Ledman, Federation Service Officer