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AUTHOR ARCHIVES
Tammy Flanagan
Tammy Flanagan is the senior benefits director for the National Institute of Transition Planning Inc., which conducts federal retirement planning workshops and seminars. She has spent 25 years helping federal employees take charge of their retirement by understanding their benefits.
For more retirement planning help, tune in to "For Your Benefit," presented by the National Institute of Transition Planning Inc. live on Mondays at 10 a.m. EDT on Federalnewsradio.com, or on WFED AM 1500 in the Washington-metro area.
Single Concerns
July 21, 2006 Two weeks ago, we looked at benefits issues for federal couples. So it's only fair that singles get their turn this week. Here are some of the questions single people face in planning for retirement: What happens to my retirement benefits when I die? How much life insurance should I ...
Federal Couples
July 7, 2006 Are you a federal employee who is married to another fed? If so, you've got some unique issues to deal with in planning for retirement. They mostly revolve around two fundamental questions: Do we need to provide each other with survivor's benefits? Should we be enrolled in self and family ...
Mixing Civilian and Military Retirement
June 30, 2006 What comes after a career in the military services? Sometimes, a second career in the civilian service is the next logical step. But as the second career nears completion, an important decision needs to be made between two retirement options: 1. Combine military and civilian careers into one civilian retirement ...
Smoothing the Transition
June 23, 2006 There's little question that the kind of benefits federal employees enjoy in retirement play a major role in their decision to work for Uncle Sam. A 2003 Office of Personnel Management survey showed that the availability of retirement and insurance benefits influenced the decision of 68 percent of respondents to ...
Ensuring a Healthy Retirement
June 16, 2006 Maintaining adequate health care coverage is a very important element in retirement planning. The Federal Employees Health Benefits Program is designed to cover not just federal employees and their families, but retirees and their family members as well. Employees and survivor annuitants may continue FEHBP coverage through their CSRS or ...
Offsetting Penalty
June 9, 2006 If you receive a pension under the Civil Service Retirement System, based on income from which Social Security taxes were not withheld, the Social Security benefits that you may be entitled to receive from your spouse (or former spouse) may be reduced due to the effects of what's known as ...
The Early Way Out
May 26, 2006 In last week's column, we looked at benefits for employees who resign before being eligible to retire. This week's topic is early retirement. Voluntary early retirement goes by various names. Informally, it's called taking an "early out." Officially, it's sometimes called VERA (Voluntary Early Retirement Authority), often coupled with VSIP ...
Leaving Early
May 19, 2006 According to the Office of Personnel Management, more than 5,000 federal employees resign every month. If you've considered leaving your job before you're eligible to retire, have you considered what benefits you will take along? Retirement Federal employees contribute to their retirement plans at the rate of 7 percent of ...
Who’s Your Beneficiary?
May 12, 2006 One important tasks in retirement planning is thinking about how you want to designate who will get lump-sum benefits related to your federal service. Beneficiary forms are among the most litigated pieces of paperwork in the federal government. Designations of beneficiaries must be in writing, signed by the designator, witnessed ...
Voluntary Benefits
May 5, 2006 Do you want a safe place for your savings that will provide a 4.125 percent rate of return this year with tax-deferred growth? Are you looking for a way to invest more than the annual limit on Individual Retirement Arrangement contributions? Would you want to buy yourself an increase to ...
