Assisting in your Service Separation

7.18.25: Audio automatically transcribed by Sonix

7.18.25: this mp3 audio file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.

Speaker1:
Welcome back to the federal retirement Show. I'm your host Val Majewski with American Benefits Exchange. Really appreciate as always, for you taking time out of your busy schedule to view our podcast, our radio show, and to learn information that we believe you need to know as a federal employee. And that's who we're here for. We're here for you, the federal employee that's looking for accurate information when it comes to your benefits and retirement situation, because we know it's not out there for you. It's not something that you're educated on. It's not classes that you took when you first got hired, although I believe it should be. Um, but for today, we want to talk with the opposite end. Right. I wish that every federal employee that we have the pleasure of talking with. I wish you could tell me that you know all this stuff already, because you went through a number of classes when you first got hired, and boom, all this information was given to you. You were properly educated, trained so you can make the best decisions during your working career and be set up properly along the way for retirement. You can reduce your costs as best as possible. Be most effective and efficient and maximize when it came to benefits and then properly prepared, if not overprepared, for retirement. But that's what I want to talk about today. Had a recommendation from one of our reps across the country and she had said, hey, I think it'd be great to do an episode on the subject.

Speaker1:
We're going to talk about today. And what it is, is what services and what things can we provide, what guidance can we provide for those that are either being terminated, they're losing their job involuntarily. They're taking a voluntary early retirement like this, deferred resignation that's going on. The people that are going to be leaving on September 30th of 2025. And what about those that retire voluntarily? What are the services and things that we can help you with as you're preparing for and now entering retirement, being separated from service. What are the things that we can help with? Now, it really just depends ultimately on what walk of life you're from. Right. Are you retiring as a person that's going to have an immediate pension? Are you retiring on maybe a deferred or postponed type of pension? Are you not planning on taking any kind of pension? Everybody's in a different scenario. The person had the deferred resignation. This person is retiring as of September 30th. And we're trying to help this better employee prepare for that moment. What are some of the things we can look at your full benefits every time or situation. And before it's all said and done, before your is finalized and sure that you are choosing the right things when it comes to your retirement paperwork. And I'll give you a couple examples.

Speaker1:
And this was part of this conversation that I just had. Choosing the right survivor benefit when it comes to your pension. I've mentioned this before as a mistake people make or something, but you want to choose the right one because it's pretty much set in stone. Once you're retired, once you're separated, you're not going to be able to just willy nilly go back and make that change. And that was the conversation we had there. But you want to know all the variables, ensure that the numbers that you think you're going to have as far as your pension, Social Security, maybe first supplement if you're under age 62 and retire with full benefits, have an idea of what those numbers are going to be. So going through your full benefits and retirement situation, answering all the questions you have, and probably answering questions you didn't even know to ask, are things that we can do for those that are preparing for retirement. And if you are going to retire, or let's say you are separated involuntarily or things, you know, this was out of your control a little bit will at least give you some peace of mind so you know what the numbers are. You can determine if you're going to have to maybe get another job, something different in retirement, or find more ways to generate income in retirement. So when you do separate, you're going to spend an interim pay.

Speaker1:
And yes, that is a thing, right? You're not going to get your first full retirement check for a number of months, because they're not going to have it all figured out yet. They're going to put you in interim pay status, which is going to pay you generally 60, 70%, give or take by some people a little more or less, but 6,070% of what you should be getting, you're going to get that initially. So this is part of that retirement education process is knowing what to expect, knowing what's ahead of you. What's the timeline with OPM? What's your timeline as far as retirement? A lot of federal employees don't know how the retirement date works. So let's say I'm going to give you an example here. But let's say from this previous conversation that I had somebody taking deferred resignation, the fork in the road, they're going to be retiring or their last day is going to be September 30th. Well, when is their effective retirement date? It's actually April. April, sorry. October 1st. The first of the following month. April would be pretty funny, wouldn't it? So your your retirement date is September 30th. Your actual effective date is October 1st. When is your first paycheck due to you? The first of the month after that, November 1st. So there's a month there of not getting paid. Now there's some maybe remaining portion of a pay period that you get paid. You might get paid that annual leave lump sum if you've got annual leave hours, but you're going to have a gap there when you stop getting paid from the government, when you start getting paid as a retiree.

Speaker1:
Are you prepared for that? Do you know that was going to happen? Then I said, you're going to be an interim pay status, which means you're probably going to get, as I said earlier, 60 to 70% of what you were looking forward to, and that can last for 3 to 6 months. The longest I have seen has been 12 months with a federal retiree. The government will back pay you everything they owe you. But were you aware of that process? Are you aware and prepared for making less money temporarily when you first separate from service when you first retire. What if you don't have enough service, right? Let's say you don't know what you're going to do because you're retiring or you're leaving and you're not eligible for a full, immediate pension. Are you eligible for a deferred retirement? Are you eligible for a postponed retirement? Are you eligible for the MRA plus ten provision? These are all things that we can discuss. Put all the options out in black and white, and you can see which pathway, which road you should take. And it's going to be most beneficial for you in retirement. Preparing for separation is not as easy as saying, hey, this is my retirement date, I'm out of here.

Speaker1:
Everybody's going to throw me a party. I'm going to get some cake. I mentioned before, I'm going to get a gold watch and I'm out. The government is going to take care of me. No, you have to educate yourself on that process. And what are your options? What are the services that a company like ours and our reps across the country can provide? And it revolves around education, educating yourself so that you have all the variables in place, and you can choose and pick what direction you need to go in. What if you need some supplemental concepts? Right. What if you need additional life insurances? Or you need to do something with your retirement savings or you need to set yourself up properly. You don't know all the options, the variables on where to go, what's all there for you. You may only know what the government has to offer, and sometimes that might be the best for you. But in a lot of cases it's not. And you need to know what else is out there. So it'd be the same as, let's say you were going to get something for your car insurance. And, you know, you only thought that one company existed and you didn't realize there were tons of things to choose from, and you'd be compared to find out which ones would be best for you or situation to your family.

Speaker1:
That's what we help you do, right? It's not just the education part. Also, it's showing you all the different pathways that you can take above and beyond what the government gives you, because there are things that you need to know about that can help set yourself up and your family up for the long haul once you're separated from service. Understand what's available and why you need to speak to somebody. If you're retired with full benefits, great. Run the numbers. Make sure you know what you know and verify everything. If you get done with the meeting with one of our ramps and you're like, this was great, but it just validated everything. I already knew there was nothing new here. Then we did our job, okay, we verified, validated, but there could be a nugget of information. There could be a bunch of nuggets that you did not know about. And you're glad you spoke with somebody, because if you didn't, you wouldn't have been made aware of these things. I talked to a lot of federal employees and said, man, I wish I would have talked to you. I wish I would have known this. I wish I would have known that so that that is a big thing. Right? So in determining which pathway to take is huge, that starts with education. That starts with making sure you sit down with somebody that is an expert and has done this before with thousands of federal employees across the country, all different agencies, all different walks of life, all different situations.

Speaker1:
Not to say we've seen it all. We certainly have not. But we've seen a whole lot in our experience and we can guide you in that proper direction. So remember when when you're thinking of separating from service or you've been separated involuntarily, you need to still have an idea of where to go, what resources are available to you? Who should you speak with? Speak to somebody that is an expert in federal benefits and retirement information, and can guide you along the way. Somebody that can field and answer your questions. Somebody that has done this before with a number of federal employees and has an idea of what pathway would be best based upon the experience that they've had. That's who you should be speaking with. That's what you should be doing and have your spouse involved. Have your spouse come to the meeting. Because chances are, if you don't know all of this in, your spouse knows a little bit less than you because they're not in it every day. As a federal employee, they may have heard things through the grapevine or heard things second or third hand, but bring them to the meeting. Bring them to the evaluation. Let them in on the secret. That is what your retirement is going to look like and the options that you have available. That'd be a huge piece of advice that I can give you.

Speaker1:
Ensure that your spouse is involved that way. Also, if something were to happen to you first as a retiree, they know what those options are that are available to them going forward, because there have been a lot of spouses that have called us, whether it's, hey, I think, um, my spouse was a federal employee and I think they had life insurance. I'm not sure. Can you help me or. I don't know what I'm supposed to know. I don't know what I'm going to be getting. My spouse died unexpectedly, and that happens a lot, right? We don't plan. We don't know. We don't have that idea. That crystal ball we're going to pass. We have to have the conversation sooner than later with the spouse. Invite them to the retirement conversation with an expert so they know everything as well, because this does affect them too. So understand and I go back to the beginning. I wish the government did all of this for you. But since they do not, it gives us a job to do. We are the experts that come out and talk to you, not just to give you information here on a podcast like this, but to dive in deep, get in the mud, get our hands dirty. Go over your situation with you. Answer the questions that you have. And I want you to leave the meeting that you have with the federal benefits expert to know 100% that you're heading in the right direction, that you've got everything set up, that you know all the variables.

Speaker1:
And even if you if it's not 100%, you know that you have now a resource, a person that you can go back to as you're going through this retirement process to answer further questions. Okay. To make clear all the other paths that you're going to be taking, the steps that you're going to be taking even into retirement. These relationships that we know, it's not just a one and done type of thing. We we talk to our clients, we talked to the federal employees and then ultimately the retirees that we help going forward. It's not a one and done. Hey, you you've got to you got to pick a different time. We've only done this once. No, we're going to talk to you going forward in perpetuity because you need consistent and continual guidance. So the purpose of today is to say, hey, if you're if you're thinking of retiring or you've been retired or you're involuntarily getting pushed out of your there's a riff, a major reorganization, uh, you're losing your job, you're separating from service. Ultimately, you need to talk to somebody and see all the services that us here at the Federal Retirement Show and American Benefits Exchange can provide. Now, how do you reach out to us? Go to our website, federal retirement.com.

Speaker1:
Fill out the form. One of our experts. If it's not me personally, we'll be reaching out to you to go over your personal benefits and retirement situation, produce a couple different reports for you, and answer any questions that you might have. Both you and your spouse, so that you are 100% or as close to it as possible. Sure that you're set up properly both now and as you approach and finally get to that separation date and retirement. So looking forward to speaking to each and every one of you. Looking forward to answering your questions as they pop up. Go back and be sure. Reach out to or reach out to. Go back and look at all other content. We have so many episodes, so much more information for you to check out. So if you've liked this episode you can go view the other ones. We have over 140 of them. Share this with somebody. If you feel it's beneficial, then it's going to be beneficial for the person that you work with. Uh, like subscribe. Get notified about a new episode when it comes out. And ultimately, as I said earlier, reach out to us so we can assist and answer your questions personally. I really appreciate you checking this episode out and joining us today. Look forward to seeing you in a future session and talking to you and going through all of your benefits and retirement information. Take care. We'll talk soon.

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