Weekend Reading on Your Federal Benefits 38-18.jpg

(for the week of September 15th – September 21st)

You’re too busy during the week to keep up on all the news around your employee benefits and pay. My weekly summary of the most interesting and relevant news stories could help you and includes my comments and insights.

By the way, if you’ve read something about your employee benefits that you think is important or interesting, share it. And, let me know about news sources that you follow. Have a great weekend.

George Ray
Federal Benefits Online

In this week’s benefits news for Feds, we want to know if an agency can force us to relocate, we look at the best dates to retire next year, keep up with big plans for changes to your Thrift Savings Plan, and learn about the TSP’s new ‘glide path’. Huh? Let’s get started.

Note: It’s not you, it’s me. I just wasn’t able to get our newsletter finished last week. (Just in case you had been searching your email for it.) Sometimes stuff happens. You understand, don’t you? Still friends?

Can Your Agency Force You to Relocate?

From ChiefHRO.com

Jeff Neal of ChiefHRO has been asking and answering a lot of relevant questions in his blog posts lately. This week’s question, about being forced to relocate, has probably been considered by many Feds at some point during their careers. The question ‘can my agency force me to relocate, or remove me from my job?’ is in the news because the Department of Agriculture announced in August that it plans to relocate two offices – the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) and the Economic Research Service (ERS).

Jeff, a former chief human resources officer, says that you can lose your job If your agency moves and you decline to move with it. They do need to have a legitimate reason to move and need to provide you with sufficient notice. And they’ll probably have to fight with Congresspeople who will oppose jobs being moved from their district and unions who will want to defend their local members, but if the move happens you’ll need to decide if you’re going to move too or look for another job. Oh, and taking your complaint to the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) won’t work as they’ll likely uphold your removal.

The Federal government does have past experience with moves (such as Base Realignments and Closures or BRACs) that have occurred in the Department of Defense and have statistics on how many people move, how many retire, and even how far people are willing to move. In fact, I’ve talked with employees during my benefits programs that have been involved in these moves. The Department of Agriculture’s move has met with lots of resistance, but if it happens employees will have limited choices and important decisions to make.

Best Dates to Retire 2019

From Govexec.com

Once again, it’s time for the annual best dates to retire supplied by Tammy Flanagan in her regular column at Government Executive. Ms. Flanagan covers suggested dates for employees who are covered by the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) and the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS). To find the best date, you’ll need to take these three things into consideration:

Retiring as close to the end of the month as possible if you’re a FERS (even if it’s a Saturday or Sunday), or retiring during the first three days of the month if you’re a CSRS-covered employee.
Considering when a leave period ends in order to not leave any of the leave you accumulated during that pay period ‘on the table’.
Looking at retiring at the end of the leave year in order to be paid for any unused leave earned during the year as well as the banked leave that you’ve accumulated throughout your career.

Of course, another advantage of retiring at the end of the calendar year (or not long into the new year) is the fact that you’ll likely be in a lower tax bracket (as a retiree) and pay less income tax on your leave distribution check when you receive it in the new calendar year.

One last thing I like to point out to those who ask about when to retire. Make sure that you’re ready both financially AND psychologically. Even if you can comfortably support yourself, what will you do with all your new-found time? Make sure you have a plan to stay engaged in activities that you enjoy. That will make your retirement so much better regardless of the date you choose.

Thrift Savings Plan to Receive Budget Increase

From govmatters.tv

Kim Weaver, Director of External Affairs at the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board, discusses what the Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) will do with $50 million of additional funds in their 2019 budget in this 6-minute video interview with Francis Rose of Government Matters TV. Miss Weaver indicates they’ll be making everything better for participants by investing in participant services, hardening legacy software, and implementing the additional expanded withdrawals project that Congress authorized back in November of 2017. (You remember we’re still waiting for that, don’t you?)

One big change which will cost lots of money is an upgrade to a new participant record-keeping system. As the new system is being tested, the TSP folks will need to continue to run the existing system to be able to provide account information. So, the two systems will run in parallel (just to be safe) for 18 to 24 months which will cause the budget to balloon (and potentially increase allocated fees maybe up to 6 basis points). As the old system is turned off, the budget will get back down to normal, but Kim indicated that you’re not likely to see a ‘huge spike in costs’ as it gets charged over a period of time. (We’ll see.) The interview also included a discussion of the new L Fund allocation and the ‘glide path’, but I’ll let my favorite reporter over at Federal News Radio tell you more about gliding.

TSP Planning to Add More Stock to Participants’ L Fund Investments

From Federalnewsradio.com

Nicole Ogrysko tells us how the Thrift Savings Plan will begin a multi-year effort to slowly shift more stock into some of its participants’ Lifecycle (L) Funds. There’s been a discussion for some time now that the L Funds have been invested too conservatively to accomplish their mission of providing adequate returns to get their respective participants (based on the participant’s expected retirement date) to a comfortable retirement. Similar funds that are used in private sector savings plans have higher allocations of stock (or equity) investments.

To accomplish this, there is a 15-year plan that’s designed to reallocate investments in the various funds that the TSP Board refers to as a ‘glide path’. Over a period of 10 years, stocks will gradually increase (kind of like gliding) to make up 30% of assets in the L Income (I) fund, as opposed to the existing 20% allocation. In addition, the TSP will immediately increase the share of International stock in all Lifecycle Funds from 30% to 35%.

And, as we’ve discussed previously, the TSP Board is also in the process of expanding (doubling) the number of L Funds from 10-year increments to 5-year increments which will more closely align your allocations and re-allocations to your expected retirement date. Nichole will give you lots more detail in her article if you want it.

See you next week. Thanks!

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