When a retired federal employee asks how to check their FEGLI coverage value, the question they usually mean is “how much life insurance do I have left?” The honest answer is “it depends on which FEGLI option you chose at retirement, how long ago you retired, and whether you have done anything to change it since.”

FEGLI coverage in retirement is not the same number that was on your paystub on your last day of work. For most annuitants, the number has been quietly shrinking for years.

What FEGLI actually is in retirement.

FEGLI stands for the Federal Employees’ Group Life Insurance program. It provides basic, optional, and family coverage to federal employees and, critically, to annuitants who elected to continue it into retirement. The program is administered by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and underwritten by Metropolitan Life Insurance Company (MetLife).

At retirement, FEGLI gives you a one-time election:

  • Continue your FEGLI into retirement as-is. If you have had FEGLI continuously for the five years immediately before retirement (or since your earliest opportunity to enroll, if that is shorter), you can retain your basic and any optional coverage into retirement.
  • Continue some coverage and drop the rest. You can choose to retain some FEGLI components and cancel others. This is where most of the planning decisions actually happen.
  • Cancel all FEGLI coverage. You can cancel entirely at retirement, with no option to re-enroll later.

The five-year rule is firm. If you did not have FEGLI continuously for the five years immediately before retirement, you cannot continue it into retirement at all.

The two patterns of retirement coverage.

This is the part that surprises people. FEGLI coverage in retirement behaves differently depending on what you elected:

Pattern 1: 75% reduction schedule.

Basic FEGLIcoverage elected as-is at retirement declines by 2% per month, starting at age 65, until it reaches 25% of the original amount at age 75. From age 75 onward, the coverage stays at that 25% floor for the rest of the annuitant’s life. No premiums are due for the basic 25% coverage once the reduction schedule has run its course.

The practical effect: an annuitant who retired with $300,000 of basic FEGLI coverage has roughly $225,000 of coverage at age 65, $150,000 at age 70, $75,000 at age 75, and $75,000 for life after that.

Pattern 2: No reduction (with full premiums).

Optional FEGLI coverage (Option A, B, or C) does notreduce automatically. It stays at the elected amount for life — but the annuitant pays premiums for the rest of their life, and those premiums increase with age. By age 70 or 75, the premiums can exceed the economic value of the coverage for many annuitants.

Some annuitants elected to have the optional coveragealso reduce after age 65, in which case premiums stop at the floor. That election locks in a lower amount for life, but eliminates the age-related premium creep.

Where to find your current coverage value.

There are three reliable sources:

  1. Your most recent annuity statement from OPM. OPM sends periodic statements that show your gross monthly annuity, your FEHB enrollment, and any FEGLI coverage currently in force.
  2. The OPM Retirement Services online portal. Logged-in annuitants can view their current FEGLI coverage amounts and the projected future schedule.
  3. The MetLife FEGLI portal. MetLife administers FEGLI on behalf of OPM and maintains coverage information that the annuitant can access directly.

Of these, the OPM Retirement Services portal is usually the most informative, because it shows both the current amount and the projected reduction schedule forward.

The question behind the question.

Most annuitants who ask “how much FEGLI do I have?” are really asking one of three downstream questions:

  • “Is this still enough?” The FEGLI coverage that felt adequate at retirement can be inadequate by age 70 or 75, especially on the basic 75% reduction schedule.
  • “Am I still paying for something I don’t need?” Optional FEGLI premiums in the 70s and 80s can be substantial. An annuitant who no longer needs the coverage may be paying for it out of habit.
  • “Should I replace FEGLI with private life insurance?” This is the question that drives most of the FEGLI planning conversations I have. The answer depends on age, health, the desired coverage amount, and the duration of the need.

The honest limitations of FEGLI in retirement.

FEGLI is a valuable benefit, but it has real limitations that most annuitants discover only when they try to replace it:

  • No cash value. FEGLI is pure term-to-age-100 (or pure declining-term, depending on the option). It does not build cash value the way a whole life or universal life policy does.
  • No living benefits. There is no accelerated death benefit for terminal illness, no long-term care rider, and no chronic-illness acceleration.
  • No portability below age 65. If you separate from federal service before age 65, your FEGLI ends unless you meet the five-year rule and continue it at conversion.
  • Limited replacement options. An annuitant in their 70s or 80s who tries to replace FEGLI with private life insurance will often find that the underwriting process produces a worse offer than the FEGLI they already have.

The decision to keep, reduce, or drop FEGLI is one of the few retirement decisions an annuitant can revisit during open season (or after a qualifying life event). It is worth taking the time to model the scenarios against your actual survivor-income needs.