Employee Matters
Staff of the Employee Compensation and Benefits Services office prepares this column.
Life events and your benefits
What constitutes a “life event” in the context of your employment benefits? Is your daily commute to work or a visit to the dentist considered a life event or something entirely different? This column identifies what is considered a life event and what action you should consider, if any, to ensure that your benefits are protected.
What is considered a life event?
A life event is an occurrence that will most likely alter your life. Very often it involves a family-status change, such as:
- Marriage
- Divorce
- Birth or adoption or legal guardianship of a child
- Your death
- Your spouse’s or child’s death
- A dependent child reaching a specific age limiting benefits
- An increase or decrease in your employment or that of your spouse
- Change in position type (classified to unclassified, or vice versa)
- Job layoff
- Leave of absence
- Termination
- Retirement
- Disability, either short-term or long-term
What should you do when a life event occurs?
Contact a benefits specialist at Employee Compensation and Benefits as soon as possible to discuss the impact of the event on all of your benefits. See the e-mail address and phone numbers below.
Most changes to your benefits must be made within 30 days of the event and require completion of an application or change form, so it’s extremely important that you seek advice immediately. In the event of your death, survivors are encouraged to call a benefits specialist at EC&BS.
What changes might you want to make?
Life events may require many changes to your benefits. Some of the examples are:
- Changing health insurance coverage from family to single
- Changing health insurance coverage from single to family
- Enrolling in a health insurance program
- Adding or dropping spouse and dependent life insurance coverage
- Removing a dependent from your health plan
- Revising your beneficiary designations for life insurance, retirement or tax sheltered annuity
- Enrolling in the Employee Reimbursement Account program
- Increasing or decreasing contributions to the ERA program
- Filing a benefit application for retirement, disability, separation or survivor benefits
- Changing federal or state tax withholding
Questions?
Contact a benefits specialist at the EC&BS office via e-mail at: employee@bussvc.wisc.edu or visit the EC&BS Web site: http://www.bussvc.wisc.edu/ecbs/ecbs.html