OPM Faces Its First Test of Recent Retirement Processing Tweaks The number of new retirement claims received by the federal government’s HR agency doubled in January, marking the start of the annual busy season. The annual retirement surge is officially upon us, as the number of new claims doubled between December 2023 and last month, […]
Crafting Your Perfect Retirement Exit Strategy These pre-retirement tasks can help ensure a smooth transition. Most of the work that I’ve done over the past 39 years has been assisting federal employees separate from federal employment and move into their life after retirement. As you might expect, there are some employees who have a smooth […]
What Is the Purpose of the I Fund and How Much Should You Invest in it? By Carol Schmidlin The objective of the I Fund is to match the performance of the MSCI EAFE (Europe, Australasia, Far East) Index. The earnings consist of gains (or losses) in the price of stocks, dividend income, and change […]
FERS Hits the Big 4-0: Has it Been That Long? Today, FERS accounts for all but several percent of the federal workforce. It also probably accounts for the majority of retirees today. Since its beginning, the Federal Employees Retirement System has been known as the “new” system, in comparison with the “old” Civil Service Retirement […]
How Some People Escape The Steep Medicare Surcharge on Premiums Known as IRMAA “Our federal health benefit program started in 1960 and Medicare didn’t start until 1965, so we always had lifetime coverage as federal retirees,” explained Tammy Flanagan, principal of the Retire Federal consulting firm in Bradenton, Fla. “The majority of federal retiree still […]