Federal Employee Services

federal
fedsavvy-insider2We offer a host of services designed to meet the needs of federal employees, including:

• Retirement Planning for CSRS and FERS
• Federal Benefit Analysis
• TSP Allocation Strategies
• Social Security Timing Report
• Brown Bag Workshops
• Full and Half Day Seminars
• White Papers
• Monthly Newsletters

 

 

feedback2Retirement Planning for CSRS and FERS

Retirement planning can be very tricky for federal employees. One wrong decision can greatly impact your retirement future. There are many factors that can have an effect on your retirement, including:

  • Your retirement plan – CSRS, CSRS Offset, FERS or FERS Transferee
  • Military Service
  • Part-time or Temporary Employment
  • Deposits and Re-Deposits
  • Length of Service
  • Special Category – Law Enforcement, Firefighter, Air Traffic Controller

Surveys have shown that many Federal Employees choose their benefits based on the choices and advice of their co-workers. The problem is that these benefits are not one-size-fits-all. That is one of the reasons that there are so many choices—each person and their situation is unique!

We can help you make sense of it all! At Franklin Planning, we specialize in retirement planning for federal employees. We have made it our goal to understand your federal benefits inside and out, so that we can help you make informed, educated decisions.

As a federal employee, it is important to begin pre-retirement planning early in your career. This is the best way to take full advantage of the benefits available to you. We can help you with your benefits choices while you are working, including decisions regarding:

  • TSP and VCP
  • Health, Dental and Vision Benefits (FEHB and FEDVIP)
  • Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs)
  • Life Insurance (FEGLI)
  • Long Term Care (FLTCIP)

As you near retirement, we can help you with decisions regarding:

  • Deposits and Re-Deposits
  • Best Days to Retire
  • Calculation of Pension Benefits
  • Survivor Benefits
  • Social Security (including Windfall Elimination Provision and Government Pension Offset)
  • Medicare
  • Taxes

As a federal employee, when you meet with us, we do a full review of your benefits and offer you a complete Federal Benefits Analysis free of charge. Next, we determine your retirement goals—your hopes and dreams for the future. We will come up with a plan, and together we can decide the best way to help you reach those goals!

Federal benefits can be very complex! Let us help you maximize and coordinate them with your retirement plan. Call us for an appointment at (856) 401-1101 or contact us online. We can schedule a time and location that works best for you.

Federal Benefits Analysis

As a federal employee, when you meet with us, we do a full review of your benefits and offer you a complete Federal Benefits Analysis free of charge.

Your Federal Benefits Analysis will include information regarding your:

  • Annuity Calculations (including Deposit, Re-Deposit, and Military Deposit)
  • FERS Supplemental Benefits
  • TSP Analysis
  • FEHB in Retirement
  • FEGLI Options

The interview appointment takes approximately one hour and will help us gather the information we need in order to prepare your analysis. Once we have completed your analysis, we will meet again to review the results, answer any questions you may have, and help you make decisions going forward.

We work with federal employees throughout the United States, with our home office located in Sewell, New Jersey. To schedule an appointment for your Federal Benefits Analysis at a time and place that is convenient for you, phone us at (856) 401-1101 or contact us online.

TSP Allocation Strategies

As a federal employee, the Thrift Savings Plan is one of the most valuable benefits you can use to help you prepare for your retirement. As a FERS employee, the TSP is one of the three main “legs” of your retirement benefits offered by the federal government. But even CSRS employees can use the TSP as a useful retirement planning tool.

At Franklin Planning, we can help you develop a TSP allocation strategy designed to fit your financial wants and needs. As retirement planning specialists, we know that it is important to take advantage of this benefit as early in your career as possible, and to continue to adjust your plan as your life changes. We can help with TSP decisions such as:

  • Contributions
  • Traditional or Roth
  • Allocations/Fund Choices
  • Loans
  • Withdrawals, including in-service, rollovers and hardship

Schedule an appointment to discuss your TSP. We can meet at a time and place that is convenient for you. Call us at (856) 401-1101 or contact us online.

Social Security Timing Report

Choosing the right Social Security election may be the most important decision of your retirement.

How much you receive from Social Security depends on three primary factors:

1. Your earnings record

2. When you elect

3. How long you expect to live

Since you can’t go back and change your earnings record, and you have minimal control over how long you live, calculating an expected lifetime benefit largely hinges on when and how you elect benefits. In theory, if you elect early, you will get a smaller benefit for a longer period of time. If you elect later, you will get a larger benefit for a shorter period of time. Single people can do a simple “break-even” analysis to determine whether to take early or wait. But for married couples, the decision is much more complex.

For married couples, a simple break-even analysis will usually give the wrong answer, costing you benefit

dollars. Why? Because Social Security offers three distinct benefits for married people:

1. Retired Worker Benefit – Based on your own earnings record

2. Spousal Benefit – Provides your spouse with a benefit once you claim your own benefit

3. Survivor Benefit – Provides your spouse with a benefit after your death

Virtually all of the simple break-even calculators in use today ignore the spousal and survivor benefits. Complex planning software includes spousal and survivor benefits but only for one combination of election ages. In short, neither tool offers a thorough analysis.

Social Security offers three distinct types of benefits for retired workers and/or their spouses. If you file prior to full retirement age, you are deemed to have filed for all benefits for which you are eligible. At full retirement age and beyond, you have several options to elect a limited benefit for a period of time, and then convert to a larger benefit at some point in the future. A recent study suggested that these options represent over $10 Billion in unclaimed Social Security benefits.

There are two techniques that can be employed to maximize your Social Security benefits. The first is the option to restrict your application to exclude certain benefits once you reach normal retirement age.  The second technique is the ability to file and suspend. Spousal benefits are not available until the primary earner has filed for his or her own benefits. The Senior Citizens’ Freedom to Work Act of 2000 allows a worker to earn delayed retirement credits after filing for benefits, if he requests that he not receive benefits during a given period. As a result, a higher-earning spouse can file for benefits, then immediately suspend the benefit, and continue to earn delayed credits. In the process, he will have made his spouse eligible for spousal benefits under his earnings record.

Certain combinations of the two techniques are also allowed. For example, the higher earner could file

and suspend to make a spousal benefit available to the secondary earner, who could then file a restricted application for only spousal benefits. This would allow both earners to earn delayed retirement credits on their own earnings records, while one spouse still collects benefits now.

Using software analysis, we can examine hundreds of possible combinations, including 81 possible age combinations across nine possible election strategies, and find the one option that offers the highest expected lifetime benefit. Call us at (856) 401-1101 to schedule an appointment for your own Social Security Analysis.