Worst Federal Employee Retirement Application MISTAKES

You’ve made it to the final stretch of your career and you are about to cross the finish line.

The last thing you want to do is to trip right before hitting the tape.

Filling out your retirement application is one of the last things you do and it can have a massive impact on the beginning of your retirement. 

Long story short: Application mistakes delay when you get your full pension. 

Here are the most common mistakes that happen all the time. 

Multiple Mistake Makers

It is critical to make sure you fill out your part of the application correctly but your payroll/HR also have their part to play.

And it is common for mistakes to happen on their parts as well.

But it is important to focus on what the parts you control such as getting them a complete and on-time application.

That will help lower the chances of them making mistakes when processing your retirement packet. 

Missing Information

While it might sound silly one of the biggest sources of application problems is when retirement applications are missing information. 

In other words, when a field is left blank that should be filled out.  

Take your time when filling out your application to make sure everything is filled out correctly. 

Missing Documents

It is very common that supporting documents are needed along with your application. 

Here some some examples common documents that are needed depending on your situation:

1. Marriage Certificate

2. Divorce Decree

3. FEGLI Election Page

Make sure you have confirmed with your HR that they have all the supporting documents that are needed. 

If something is missing then it is often very time consuming for OPM to track it down when they are processing your packet after you retire.

Your Elections are Forever

One of the most important functions of your retirement application is to make elections about your benefits. 

For example, you elect whether or not to leave a survivor benefit for your spouse on your pension or whether or not to keep FEGLI (life insurance) into retirement. 

And for the most part, these elections are permanent with very few (if any) options to change them later so you want to make sure you are picking the ones that make the most sense for you. 

You can find more information about the survivor benefit here. 

The Controllables

You can’t control every aspect of your retirement but there is a lot that is in your control.

It is best to focus 100% on what you can control and not worry too much about what you can’t.