FEGLI Enrollment Changes: Open Season, Life Events, and What You Can't Undo

FEGLI Doesn't Work Like FEHB

Federal employees are used to an annual Open Season for health insurance — every November, you can switch FEHB plans, add or drop coverage, and adjust your family's health plan. FEGLI has no equivalent annual enrollment period. Changes to your life insurance coverage are restricted to specific qualifying events, and the rare FEGLI Open Season happens only when OPM decides to offer one.

This structure means FEGLI decisions are effectively permanent for years at a time. Understanding when you can change coverage — and what happens when you can't — directly affects your retirement planning.

Qualifying Life Events

Outside of a FEGLI Open Season, you can only change your FEGLI coverage during qualifying life events (QLEs):

Marriage. You can add or increase Option C (family coverage) within 60 days of your marriage.

Divorce. Option C coverage on your former spouse ends automatically upon divorce. You cannot add it for a new partner until another qualifying event.

Birth or adoption of a child. You can add or increase Option C within 60 days.

Death of a spouse. You can reduce or cancel Option C coverage.

New federal employment. When you first enter federal service, you're automatically enrolled in Basic coverage (unless you waive it within 60 days). You can elect Options A, B, and C at that time.

Return from military service. USERRA provisions allow reenrollment after qualifying military leave.

For each qualifying event, you have 60 days from the date of the event to make your election change. After 60 days, the window closes until the next qualifying event or open season.

The Rare FEGLI Open Season

FEGLI Open Seasons are exceedingly rare. The most recent one was in September–October 2016. Before that, the previous Open Season was in 2004. There is no fixed schedule — OPM authorizes them at its discretion, and they may not happen for a decade or more between occurrences.

During a FEGLI Open Season, you can:

• Enroll in Basic if you previously waived it
• Add Options A, B, or C
• Increase Option B or C multiples
• Some elections made during Open Season require proof of insurability (medical underwriting)

If one is scheduled, OPM publishes the details through agency HR channels and on opm.gov. Because there is no fixed schedule, don't plan your retirement coverage strategy around the assumption that an open season will occur before you separate.

What You Can Always Do (No Event Required)

Certain FEGLI changes can be made at any time during active employment without a qualifying event:

Cancel any coverage. You can waive Basic, cancel Option A, reduce Option B multiples, or reduce Option C multiples at any time by filing SF 2817 (Life Insurance Election) through your HR office. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the pay period in which HR processes the form.

Reduce coverage in retirement. After retirement, you can change a No Reduction election to a Full Reduction (or 75% Reduction for Basic) at any time. This one-way ratchet down is always available.

The critical rule: you can always decrease, but you can almost never increase. Dropping from 5 multiples of Option B to 3 is a form submission away. Going from 3 back to 5 requires a qualifying life event or open season — and even then, only if the specific change is permitted.

The Five-Year Rule Consequence

Every enrollment change resets the five-year clock for that specific coverage or multiple. If you add two multiples of Option B during a 2026 Open Season, those two multiples won't satisfy the five-year continuous enrollment requirement until 2031. If you retire before 2031, you can continue only the multiples you've held for five full years — the new ones are canceled at separation.

This is the reason the timing of enrollment changes matters so much for retirement planning. Adding coverage within five years of your planned retirement date creates coverage you'll immediately lose.

Common Enrollment Mistakes

Waiving Basic coverage early in your career. Some younger employees waive Basic to save money on premiums, planning to re-enroll later. But re-enrollment requires a qualifying life event or open season — which may not come for years. And once you re-enroll, the five-year clock starts fresh.

Assuming open season will come before retirement. Building a retirement plan around coverage you haven't enrolled in yet, hoping an open season appears, is a gamble that may not pay off for a decade.

Not checking SF-50 records. Your Official Personnel Folder (OPF) contains the definitive record of when each coverage was added. If your HR records show a coverage start date that's less than five years before your planned retirement, you have a gap — and no amount of paperwork at retirement can fix it.

For a structured approach to auditing your current enrollment, verifying five-year rule compliance, and planning your SF 2818 election based on the coverage you'll actually be able to continue, the FEGLI Retirement Decision Guide walks through the entire process step by step.

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