Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
[00:00:04] Speaker B: Welcome to Reyna Retirement. Reyna Reyes has dedicated her career to helping people make smarter financial decisions. Reyna Retirement is all about breaking down complex financial concepts into language you can actually understand.
Now here's the co founder of American Federal Benefits Consultants, Reyna Reyes.
[00:00:23] Speaker A: Well, happy day to you, Raina, here. And this is summertime for me and a lot of y'. All. Summertime for you. Obviously we're in the same time period right now and sometimes when a lot of people start traveling, there's a lot of to and from and going and coming. And in order to do that, if you're gonna leave your home and take a vacation, what do you need? If you're gonna take a fair paying source, you need a ticket, right? Well, many of y' all who want to leave your position at your federal or postal job, you need your ticket to exit. And that ticket is really your retirement document. And in the same way you fill out a ticket, you gotta fill out your retirement document so you can have the permission to go. It tells them where you're going, when you're going, how you're going, what are you taking with you and what family members might have benefits as well.
So you've heard a lot of people go over it and talk about it, and if you haven't, then you're about to. Okay. It doesn't matter what organization you're with, what agency, it is 100% irrelevant. The documents end up looking exactly like what I'm about to show you. Because these are standard documents from the government, the form numbers have not changed since 2014.
You may be surprised. Holy cow, I thought they were changing all the time. No.
So if you are concerned and wondering what aura is all about, it is simply going to upload and fill out these documents for you. They're going to end up looking the same. After you're done filling in all the stuff that looks very techy, it looks very website oriented, user friendly, but it is simply filling out this document to then submit to opm. Now, my postal employees, you don't have aura, you, you don't have grb, you don't have Fed Navigator, you have light blue, and you have postal ease. But more important than either of those, you have Raina and her team who can help you complete these perfectly the first time through. So you can be done and have your ticket ready to roll and be on a truly permanent vacation, which is the beauty of retirement. So let's go through this. I want you to see it, know what it looks like. Understand also that it looks a little daunting, but you don't have to be too concerned about it. Number one, you have us. If you have not scheduled an appointment with us, I would encourage you to do so. We do not charge to have the meeting. We do not charge to do your documents. We don't even charge to complete your disability retirement documents if that is something you need to do. Obviously, that's a total diff. Totally different scenario. But we understand those documents as well and can walk you through that process.
Let's take it in segments and understand that in general, everyone only needs eight pages of this packet. Postal employees. You get mailed a big old honker dissertation dictionary, library book, and they used to call it the blue Book. I think most of us, many of us will always call it the blue Book. But it is no longer blue. They don't even pay for, for the blue paper any longer. It is a white book front all the way around, other than the ink. And that's all you get. You're good. You get white paper, black ink, and here's what's inside. But what's crazy, that document is over 150 pages out of that. You only need eight and nine in a couple of situations. So let's go over them so you know what you're dealing with. This top section, it's the usual plug and chug stuff. Name, address, birthday, social media and phone number. Second section, where are you working? What's your agency? When are you going to retire? That's box number two on the right hand side. You tell them. A lot of people say, oh, but I told them on the phone I was going to retire on such and such a date. That doesn't matter. You can tell them all kinds of things.
I got a guy, he's 80, and he's been saying he's going to retire since he was 65 years old. Do you know how many blue books he has?
Yeah, a lot. He's got a stack of them. They're now in my collection because I have a collection of blue books to kind of show how many people I've saved from doing the documents. But again, he told them he was going to retire. Many times the word means literally nothing. The paper trail is what matters. It's only when you write it down, sign it, send it up, and don't change your mind at when that day comes and goes.
And then you're telling them where to position, pay, plan and occupation. That's different for each agency. Postal service, we just put in it now number four and Five. Military service. Were you military? Did you retire? Marital status? Are you married? Who's your honey bunches? Name, you know, name, birthday, social. When did you get married and where? This is a big deal because there's a survivor benefit to which they are entitled and that's your choice. Here in section D, you're going to simply initial which survivor benefit. If you saved nothing else from your retirement process, this page should be saved. Take a picture of it, copy it, pop it in your little, you know, I retired folder.
I don't care what you do with it, but save it. Because one day you may say, I can't remember if we did a survivor benefit. And you'll call me. I'll say, well, can you log in to your OPM website which will show your deductions and things like that? Nope, never logged in. Don't know how to do it. Okay, do you have the signed document? Because I have it, I filled it out for you and I have the notes. But I've had people change their mind after we made decisions and they initialed a different box. I will never know that because it's, it's the initial that you write your name on, whether it's box one, two or three.
And there's no way for anyone to know that other than this page after it was initialed and you submitted it. Same thing with OPM though, they will know. But again, this, having this document, I would say much easier. Now there are other survivor benefit options on the next page. Whether you had a former spouse or an insurable interest that gets down into the, you know, into a rabbit hole that we won't go to.
However, the former spouse scenario, if you do have a court order that says you gotta pay your prior sweetheart, then you want to be sure a, that you submit it and document it correctly.
And also let's plan, tell me when we get together because we need to plan for the math because that apportionment is what they call it because you're paying a portion of, of your pension to them as long as they're living.
And we need to make the math make sense because I've had people, they'll tell me after the fact, oh yeah, by the way, I'm like, dude, this changes our whole math. Like it changes everything.
So just tell me up front. It's a lot easier. It's a lot easier. Section E insurance. Do you have life insurance and health insurance and can you keep it? And dental and vision and long term care.
So those are some just answers to that. Did you have workers comp. Did you have other stuff that you bought back? Things like that? This third page, give me my money. That's what I call this page. Banking information. Where do you want them to do your direct deposit? Doesn't matter that you're already getting paid from your human resources direct deposit. They still gotta tell opm. This is like you remember, you're the baton. You're the baton being handed off.
Just like in a relay race, you're going from human resources over to OPM and they're going to take over and they're going to be your people from now on. So you got to tell OPM how you want them to pay you and where.
And then this page is all about your military service. But it also has workers comp stuff on here. Yes, you need to just fill it out, even if it's all na, not applicable.
And this I have kind of pre filled. For somebody who may have no military anything. It's just blank and a bunch of no's. You could even write N A in there, but I like to use actual typing. And then part schedule C is workers comp. So if you did have any workers comp claims, civil service, it's like ever fers, they're usually concerned about the last couple of years.
However, if you have the claim number ready or can put your hands on it, I'm a big fan of just putting it on there because again, once workers comp claim, always workers comp claim. If you come to me and I'm a general practice, like a gp, doctor Primary. No, like not a workers comp guy. And you say, hey, I have this busted shoulder. I'm like, oh, okay, let me check it out. You're like, yeah, it was workers comp.
What? Hands off. I'm say, nuh, be gone. I never knew you. You got to go see a workers comp guy for that shoulder. Once workers comp, always workers computer.
So that's why it's not like they're going to do or not or it's not going to have anything to do with your claim.
But it's just a declaration. Hey, I'm exiting. I did have some workers comp claims whether they were paid or not.
Three alpha and bravo. I always just put it out because they're saying, hey, if anything changes to the workers comp that you don't get, will you tell us? Sure. Right. If anything changes, whether you get it or not, will you tell us? Huh?
All right. Certified summary, Federal service. Many people filling this out by hand leave this section blank. And that is totally fine. Your human resources can and will fill it out as well. Aura does this for you. If it doesn't go to human resources, you do not have to physically do this.
I have mine defaulted to where it will. Right. It gives a. It shows the history reflected from say your annuity estimate or something like that. That's that section B, Bravo. But section A, you fill it out. Name, birthday, social and then did you transfer to fers? This question is becoming very passe because this was like, oh, you were civil service and you moved to fers. Probably not. That's very.
There's not going to be people that have that any, with any regularity. It's not, that's not going to be. It's not going to affect most people. So most of that's going to be no. And then nine Alpha and Bravo, if you retired from the military, you know, 9A needs to be A. Yeah, but there's not going to be many people who waive their military retirement pay to get credit into civilian FERS payment. Now if you've watched my social media quite a bit, there are people that do it there. It's a rarity. But there are people that do it primarily when they get a job at the Fed that has a very high salary and they would be paid higher by using their military years to add into their current pension because they get a higher value per year.
That is a rare scenario. In general, a retired military personnel will not buy back retired years, only non retired. And of course remember you can buy back your active duty reserve time years. So if you're a reservist and you had active time, you can buy the active time back. Same if you were disabled or retired on a disability military retirement.
Second page of this blank. This is just a continuation, but you'll sign the bottom in section E. Echo that the service list is complete. And date these things, date these puppies.
Life insurance. So again, your aura will fill most of this stuff out. But I was walking somebody through one the other day. AURA does not have the life insurance page automatically in it. You got to go get it.
So that is, you know, but you fill it out, name, birthday, social at the top and then these decisions really matter.
Life insurance. If you have basic life insurance, listen to Raina. Yes, you want to keep basic life insurance no matter how you slice it. And at a minimum, box 8 should at least say 75% reduction. So at a minimum, yes, and then 75% reduction.
But on our meeting when you schedule with me, I can help you understand the difference between 75% reduction, which means you keep the remaining 25%, or reducing by 50, or not reducing at all. Clearly, no reduction will be the most expensive because you're keeping all of your basic life insurance. But remember, 75% reduction. How much are you going to pay after you turn 65? You're not. It's free to keep 25% of your salary. So it's one of these duh, Homer Simpson head slap moments of, of course you're going to keep the free insurance. It buries you for free, literally. Option A, if you have it, keep it, keep it.
It's $3.90 a month until you turn 60, and then it's $13 a month until you turn 65, and then it's free.
Free to keep 2500. But right now it's like $10,000 while you're working. So just keep it. It's. It's so inexpensive. B. Bravo. We have some conversations about many people will keep one or two units of B until they turn like 70. But again, this is a conversation, but you see why it matters. If you don't have B now, you got to click I don't have B. But if you do, you got to click yes or no. I want to keep it. And how many units and whether they're going to reduce fully after age 65 or whether you're going to keep paying for them. Family does the same thing. Option C, that's family coverage. So if you've got it, you've got to put yes or no. If you don't got it, you're going to put I don't got C.
And then how many units? Right? You can only keep what you currently have or decrease that amount.
So this is a big page. I find this page to be incredibly important because fast forward, if you've done it correctly and told all of your family members my phone number, if and when something happens to you, they'll just call me and I'll help them with the claim anyway.
So I'll keep a copy of this and now I'll know what insurance you had very quickly without them having to wait for OPM to tell them what you did or didn't have. I'll be able to give them a pretty good idea of what they can expect, and we get the claim forms done. I keep them ready at a, at a, at the drop of a hat, at a moment's notice, because I get, I never know when I'm gonna, gonna get a phone call from a family Member about someone passing away and we need to rock and roll and get the claims submitted to to get them paid fast. And remember I can all in that claim process, not only am I helping them with the claim forms with life insurance, but there's claim forms with TSP, any outside IRAs that they had or have any any other insurance. Right. And ways to quickly save money on insurance so we don't continue overpaying if that's the case. So it's very important I would say keep, keep my number in the if something happens to me binder or the if something happens to me shoebox. Put my number there so they know to call me to help with this process. This page is postal specific. This is only for postal employees.
This is a replica or a recapitulation.
To say again your separation date. You would initial the box on the left here and then you're I'm retiring, say last day of July.
My annuity is going to begin August 1st of the same year. You sign it, you put your employee ID number, email and phone number or rather date and then this is the 9th page and only needed if you are going to leave your current spouse less than a full survivor benefit or if there's a variety of ways you're going to do it. Like if your former spouse agreed to a quarter rather than half.
They got a sign in front of a notary, which I am. But the postal service does not allow mobile notaries. You got to have ink, preferably blue. If you have blue running around the house, blue ink. And this page will. Will.
This page is a. Is the culprit notaries all of us. It's inevitable. One day we're going to put the wrong date on the wrong place or the wrong commission expiration or sign in the wrong spot or lift the pen and put it back down again and make it look like a correction. Double triple check this page if you need it, if you're going to use it.
If you have that notary, do not leave without having gone over every single number, every single date and made sure it doesn't look like a correction. They will send it back.
So that is a overview of the documents. That's literally your entire ticket to ride to get out of Dodge. If you are ready to retire you now the Beatles is in my head. Oh my goodness.
Oh my goodness. She's got a ticket to ride. Okay, now you do too because Raina just went over it for you. And easiest is just to schedule a meeting with myself or one of my team members to get that document done, completed, perfect. If you have tech issues, if you have bad handwriting, if you're just not. If you just don't want to make a mistake, reach out, get scheduled again. We. We charge nothing.
We complete them for you. The way I do it and the way I've taught my team to do it is to fill it out for you, email it to you so you can print it, sign it and send it up. Now, we can't do that with Aura just because they do it themselves kind of internally.
Now I have them for people, for the grb. And maybe we can do it in Aura and you just print it, sign it, upload it, and off she goes. In Aura, you're still going to have to do the life insurance page and upload it. That's the way it read whenever I was helping somebody the other day.
So I hope this helps. Again, it's an overview. It's not meant to say, this is perfect. You'll get it done exactly correctly. That's the reason I encourage a meeting. So if you haven't scheduled, now's the time. Some of us do get a little booked out. So if you're thinking you're going to retire in the next, you know, five, six months, I would say go ahead and get scheduled, even if you're further out from retirement. This is my favorite.
But if you just hear this and you know you're retiring within the next two to three years, get booked. I'd rather talk to you once a year until you retire and be sure we're good to go rather than waiting to retire the next month. And then somebody, oh, man, I need to buy my time back or I need to fix this problem before I go, whatever it is.
So you're thinking, wrap it up, Reina, and I'm ready. Schedule a meeting. We can help you. We can charge nothing. We'll get your documents done right the first time and make sure you know exactly how much money you're going to make. After tax tag and title. We'll talk to you soon.
[00:19:19] Speaker B: Thanks for listening to Reyna Retirement. With a strong commitment to ethical standards, Reyna works hard to find the right solution for each individual or family who reaches out for advice. To contact reina directly, call 850-450-6500. That's 850450 6500. Or to reach the the team at American Federal Benefits Consultants, call 1-800-872-8857. That's 1-800-872- 8857. You can also go online to americanfederal.org not affiliated with the United States Government. Opinions expressed are subject to change without notice. These opinions are not intended as investment advice nor do they predict future performance of any product. All information provided is believed to be from reliable sources. However, we make no representation or warranty as to the accuracy of any statement. The information is intended to be educational in nature and does not provide a guarantee or specific result. All copyrights and trademarks are the property of their respective owners. American Federal Benefits Consultants is an independent organization, not a government agency or affiliated with the Federal Government or any state government. The terms CSRS, FERS, FEGLI and FEHB are all registered trademarks of the U.S. office of Personnel Management. American Federal Benefits Consultants, agents consultants or any independent contractors do not provide tax, legal or investment advice and do not engage in the solicitation or sale of securities. Consult with your tax advisor or attorney regarding specific situations.
