All About FERS- A Tip for Special Rules Retirement Candidates

Hi, my name is Mike Lanway, I'm a financial planner. I'm an expert in federal employee benefits, and I'm here to help you decide what you need to do to make best use of those benefits to your advantage. 

For the Special Rules Retirement people; federal law agents, firefighters, and air traffic controllers; you guys have this opportunity for FERS disability as well. I just want to make sure that we emphasize that for you, and that we also emphasize for you different opportunities to have additional planning from your associations. 

All of you may have some associations, whether you're a firefighter, a law officer, or an traffic controller, you may have an association that's going to offer you some disability protection. Understand that offer. Understand what it can and cannot do for you, but use it as a supplement to FERS disability retirement. You don't want to get insurance that won't actually pay in the event that you get FERS disability retirement, so make sure you understand how things work together.

I don't want to discourage you from getting associational coverage if you feel it's necessary, just know how it works with the FERS disability retirement benefits so that it doesn't get canceled- not canceled, but offset, because you've got this disability retirement benefit that really nullifies the association coverage. Make sure that doesn't happen. Make sure you're spending your money wisely. Make sure you understand the difference.

We hope you enjoyed our video series on the different components of your retirement and your benefits. If you want to see more, learn more at your own pace, use our annual benefit statement. You'll see the link at the bottom and within the description. Go there, take a look at it, we think you'll be happy with what you see and and that it's going to help you.