History of FEGLI
The Federal Employees Group Life Insurance (FEGLI) program is a life insurance program available to federal and USPS employees.
History of Fegli
FEGLI was authorized into law through the Federal Employee’s Group Life Insurance Act (FEGLIA – S. 3681) passed by Congress and subsequently signed into law in August 1954 by President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
The law created FEGLI, which is now the largest group life insurance program in the world, and provides coverage for more than four million federal employees and family members. FEGLI was officially created on August 29, 1954.
Who Handles Your FEGLI Claims?
FEGLI is administered by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), which has a contract with the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company (MetLife) for providing group life insurance cover to federal and postal employees.
To be specific, MetLife has created an office called the Office of Federal Employees’ Group Life Insurance (OFEGLI) that handles all the claims coming in through the FEGLI program.
FEGLI contributions by federal employees and 2:1 matching contributions from the employing federal agency do not create any cash or paid-up value, and FEGLI should not be considered as an investment vehicle. You are not able to seek a refund of contributions if you terminate or reduce your FEGLI coverage, and you cannot take out a loan against your FEGLI policy.
It is a life insurance policy that will provide benefits to the named beneficiary in case the annuitant dies while the FEGLI policy is still active. All eligible federal employees are automatically enrolled into FEGLI when they are hired, unless you specifically waive your coverage. The government pays 1/3 of the cost of your BASIC FEGLI coverage. You will have to pay 100% of the costs of optional FEGLI coverage through FEGLI Option A, B and/or C.
You may sign up or alter coverage only when you join or due to a qualifying life event (QLE), or when the rare FEGLI open season event is held. In the history of FEGLI since it was launched in 1954, only nine such open season events have been held to-date. The last one was in 2004.