The Office of Personnel Management just recently created new regulations to expand life insurance access to federal employees that are overseas. For example, this applies to federal employees sent overseas to help with military operations or individuals that have been called back into active military service.

In a GovExec report, Matt Biggs, the legislative director of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Employees said, “Obviously, it is challenging for federal workers overseas to achieve affordable life insurance. So, to the extent that this OPM policy can give workers a viable and affordable life insurance option, the government deserves credit for attempting to provide this benefit.”

One of the changes would be that federal employees that are recalled into active military duty would be allowed to stay enrolled in FEGLI for 2 years. Another change would be that Defense Department employees, civilian employees that could be potentially deployed, or any other federal employee that could be sent abroad to support military duties are allowed to enroll in FEGLI. They have the option to choose Basic, Standard, and Additional insurance.

In the new regulations, there are also changes to FEGLI. One of them is that individuals can change the type of insurance coverage when they get married, have a divorce, have a child, or there is a death of a spouse. OPM is open for comments on this new regulation until March 1^st, 2010.