Avoid Abandoning Your TSP

Required Minimum Distributions (RMD) must be taken from an employer retirement plan by April 1st following the year you turn age 70 1/2 (unless you are still employed by that employer), to avoid a 50% IRS penalty of the RMD that was not taken. If you don’t take the RMD by December 31st of the year you turn 70 ½ and instead, take it by April 1st of the following year, you will avoid the 50% penalty but you will have to take two RMD’s that year.

Read more

WEBINAR: How Divorce Can Affect Federal Benefits

Join us on Tuesday, May 10th at 12:00 pm EST

Nationally, over 50% of marriages end in divorce. For federal employees, that typically means awarding the former spouse a portion of their FERS annuity and TSP account balance. Carol Schmidlin will be accompanied by a special guest for this webinar, CPA Dan Jamison.

Read more

Fed’s Long-Term Care Just Got More Expensive

Long-term care premiums are expected to increase for federal employees around the end of 2016.

The Office of Personnel Management agreed to terms on a new seven-year contract with John Hancock Life and Health Insurance Company this past Tuesday.

OPM Secretary, Sam Schumach, said that the increase is due to longer lifespans and low returns on investments from program’s trust fund. (At least one of those problems is a good one to have.)

The increase will occur “no earlier than Fall 2016” according to Schumach and there is no solid estimate on the increase, though signs point to it increasing from anywhere between 5-25%. The last time John Hancock signed a new contract, in 2009, premiums increased 25%.

We will update as soon as we have new information.

For further reading, click here.