Estate planning is a sensitive issue and many avoid the subject until it’s too late. This can and will compromise your heir’s benefits, or at least delay them when they will be needed most.  It’s never too late to start. It is advisable to compile this information long before it will be needed, and the earlier the better. You can always update/revise your plans as time and circumstances dictate.

Request a Federal Retirement Report™ to review projected annuity payments, income verses expenses, FEGLI, and TSP projections.

Our checklist is not all inclusive and is meant to provide essential information needed by survivors when an annuitant first dies. If the information isn’t compiled beforehand, heirs can collect the data as they work through the check list. However, it is advantageous to compile information ahead of time to make things easier for your family.

We recently expanded our Survivor’s Checklist to four pages and added additional content to help heirs retain their benefits through this difficult time.  The checklist includes procedures for reporting a death to OPM, lists critical contact numbers for the TSP, OPM, FEGLI, Social Security, Medicare, the records center, and others.

For those who haven’t collected this critical data, there is no time like the present to start. Download the form and add your personal information such as final arrangement contacts, attorney, will and trust location, and attach letters of instruction, a survivor’s report, list of bank and brokerage accounts, contact lists, and other essential data.

There are two versions available, a Word and PDF file. You can download the PDF file or use the Word file that you can expand and tailor to fit your personal situation.  Share these with your family and friends.  We are designing a comprehensive fill-in PDF format for a future release.

Disclaimer: Opinions expressed herein by the author are not an investment or benefit recommendation and are not meant to be relied upon in investment or benefit decisions. The author is not acting in an investment, tax, legal, benefit, or any other advisory capacity. This is not an investment or benefit research report. The author’s opinions expressed herein address only select aspects of various federal benefits and potential investment in securities of the TSP and companies mentioned and cannot be a substitute for comprehensive investment analysis. Any analysis presented herein is illustrative in nature, limited in scope, based on an incomplete set of information, and has limitations to its accuracy. The information upon which this material is based was obtained from sources believed to be reliable, but has not been independently verified. Therefore, the author cannot guarantee its accuracy. Any opinions or estimates constitute the author’s best judgment as of the date of publication, and are subject to change without notice. The author explicitly disclaims any liability that may arise from the use of this material.

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Dennis Damp

Dennis V. Damp is an author, retired federal manager, business owner, career counselor and veteran. Damp is the author of 28 books, a recognized benefits expert, and a retired federal manager with 35 years’ service. Dennis has been a guest on hundreds of radio talk shows, CNN’s YOUR MONEY and the Lou Dobbs Cable TV shows, lectured at universities and colleges, produced Internet web sites and training videos, and has written hundreds of articles for national magazines and newspapers. His books have been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, New York Times and U.S. News & World Report.

Dennis joined the Air Force in 1968 and spent over three years on active duty and an additional seven years with the Air National Guard. He was hired by the Department of Defense (DOD) after leaving active duty and transferred to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in 1975. He spent the remainder of his career in various positions with the FAA. His last position was technical operations manager at the Pittsburgh International Airport’s air traffic control tower.