FEGLI Calculator and Its Uses

CompareFEGLI.com’s Online FEGLI Calculator

Use a FEGLI calculator to determine the coverage amount and to find the lowest cost your life insurance. There are three reasons why you might need to use the FEGLI calculator. The first is to gain an understanding of what coverage you are eligible for when you are hired as a federal employee.  The next reason to use a FEGLI calculator is to determine if you are able to save money by comparing your FEGLI vs. private life insurance.  A third reason to compare your coverage is on the rare occasion that you get to modify your FEGLI coverage amounts and options through a qualifying life event or when there is a FEGLI Open Season.

The final time you will need to use a FEGLI calculator is when you retire. FEGLI rates and coverage change quite a lot post-federal retirement, so you will need to know the changed premiums and reducing coverage amounts along with ways to begin saving money as your FEGLI rates can increase quite a lot in retirement.

How to Use the FEGLI Calculator

The OPM provides an online FEGLI calculator that you can use to determine the face value of different combinations of FEGLI coverage, however, OPM’s calculator does not compare FEGLI against non-government options like CompareFEGLI.com will. You can use the calculator to see how choosing different coverage amounts and FEGLI Options will change the amount of life insurance and the premiums.

The FEGLI calculator also shows how life insurance changes over time after retirement. Using the FEGLI calculator is pretty easy. You should look at your paystub and start with your current coverage.

Enter in your Basic Pay, age, payment mode (bi-weekly or monthly) and the FEGLI Options (A, B and/or C) and the number of multiples for Option B and C, if needed. Postal service employees will have to select “Yes” in the box which asks whether they are employed by the USPS, since USPS FEGLI (insurance) rates are impacted by the fact that the USPS pays 100% FEGLI Basic coverage for USPS employees (Postal employees pay for the costs of the options). Other federal employees should select “No.”

Once you have a baseline amount and premium, you can make changes to the options you chose in the calculator and have it recalculate to see what difference it makes to the amount of FEGLI life insurance and the premiums.