FEGLI Calculator

Federal Employees' Group Life Insurance

How your FEGLI coverage is calculated

Basic insurance is built from your annual rate of basic pay, which includes locality pay. Round that pay up to the next $1,000 and add $2,000; the result, or $10,000 if it is more, is your Basic insurance amount (BIA). In the default example, $85,000 of pay gives a BIA of $87,000. OPM's handbook uses the same rule in its examples: $57,126 of pay gives a $60,000 BIA, and a capped salary of $143,471 gives $146,000.

If you are under 45 you also get an extra benefit at no extra cost. Basic pays twice your BIA if you die at 35 or younger, and the multiple falls by 0.1 each year until it reaches 1.0 at 45. At 40, the $87,000 BIA pays 1.5 times, or $130,500. Accidental death coverage pays your BIA again, without the extra benefit, plus the Option A amount if you have it.

Source: OPM, FEGLI Handbook, extra benefit (age multiplication factor).

What FEGLI costs

Basic costs $0.16 every two weeks, or $0.3467 a month, for each $1,000 of BIA, at every age. That is your share: the government pays one-third of the Basic premium and you pay two-thirds, and the Postal Service pays the whole Basic premium for its employees. On an $87,000 BIA, Basic costs $13.92 a paycheck. Options A, B and C are paid entirely by you, and their rates rise in five-year age groups starting at 35. A new age group starts with the pay period after the one in which your birthday falls.

Source: OPM, Premiums for Employees, biweekly rates in effect since October 2021 (Option A is $6.00 for all ages 60 and over). The calculator also has the monthly rates.

Because the optional premiums climb with age, the same coverage costs much more later in your career. The table below follows your current choices through each age group at today's pay.

With the default choices the cost rises from $19.69 a paycheck at 40 to 44 to $32.75 at 50 to 54 and $90.35 at 60 to 64, almost all of it from Option B. Two multiples of Option B on $85,000 of pay is $170,000 of coverage, which costs $5.10 every two weeks at 40 to 44 and $68.00 at 60 to 64. Basic stays at $13.92 the whole time because its rate does not change with age.

Options A, B and C

Option A adds $10,000 of life insurance, and its accidental death benefit equals the Option A coverage. Option B adds one to five multiples of your annual pay rounded up to the next $1,000, without the extra $2,000 and without the extra benefit: OPM's example is $52,578 of pay, where each multiple is worth $53,000. Option C covers your family. Each multiple is $5,000 for your spouse and $2,500 for each eligible child, generally unmarried and under 22, so three multiples pay $15,000 if your spouse dies and $7,500 for a child.

FEGLI in retirement

You can keep FEGLI into retirement if you retire on an immediate annuity and have been insured for the 5 years of service right before your annuity starts, or for all of your service if that is shorter. For Basic you choose 75% reduction, 50% reduction or no reduction. Nothing reduces while you are still working. For retirees the reductions start at 65: with 75% reduction your Basic falls by 2% of the pre-retirement amount each month until 25% is left, and with 50% reduction by 1% a month until half is left.

Source: OPM, Premiums for Annuitants and FEGLI Handbook.

On the example $87,000 BIA, 75% reduction costs $30.16 a month until 65, then nothing, and leaves $21,750. No reduction costs $225.91 a month before 65 and $195.75 after, and keeps the full $87,000. Option A reduces by 2% a month from 65 until $2,500 is left and is free once it starts to reduce. For Options B and C you choose full reduction, where each multiple falls by 2% a month from 65 to zero and the premium stops, or no reduction, where the coverage stays and you keep paying at your age group's rate. Keeping 2 multiples of Option B on $85,000 of pay with no reduction costs $176.80 a month at 65 to 69.

Leave without pay, leaving federal service and living benefits

Your coverage continues for the first 12 months in nonpay status without premium payments, unless you receive workers' compensation. When coverage ends for a reason other than your own waiver or cancellation, for example when you separate, it continues free for another 31 days and you can convert all or part of it to an individual policy without a medical examination. If you are diagnosed as terminally ill with a life expectancy of nine months or less, you can elect a living benefit, paid to you, from your Basic insurance; optional insurance is not available as a living benefit.

Changing your coverage

There are no regularly scheduled FEGLI open seasons; OPM holds one only when it schedules it. You can add coverage after a qualifying life event (marriage, divorce, the death of a spouse or acquiring an eligible child) from 31 days before to 60 days after the event, and you can reduce or cancel coverage at any time. FEGLI death benefits are not taxable income for federal personal income tax purposes, although interest paid on the proceeds is. For the rest of your federal pay stub see FERS paycheck deductions and paycheck deductions explained; for pay and retirement use the GS pay calculator, the FERS retirement calculator, the FERS supplement calculator and the TSP contribution paycheck guide.