How should I be drawing the TSP?
Installments, partial withdrawals, annuity purchase — and what changes once required minimum distributions begin.
Planning after you have retired
The decisions do not stop at the retirement date. Most of the advice written for federal employees stops the day the paperwork is filed, which leaves the people who are actually living the decisions with nowhere to go.
The questions
The questions we get asked most
Which account should I draw from first?
The annuity, the TSP and Social Security are taxed differently. The order changes what you keep.
What do I do about FEHB and Medicare at 65?
Whether to take Part B alongside FEHB, and what that decision costs either way.
My FEGLI premium keeps rising. What are my options?
Reductions, conversions, and when it stops being worth carrying.
My circumstances have changed. What needs updating?
Survivor provisions and beneficiary designations after a death, a divorce or a remarriage.
My annuity payment is wrong.
What OPM needs from you, and how these are usually resolved.
Where it goes wrong
The mistakes we see most
Each of these is recoverable if it is caught early, and most of them are not caught early.
- Taking TSP installments without checking the tax withholding actually applied — what we do about it
- Reaching RMD age without a withdrawal plan already running — what we do about it
- Making the Medicare Part B decision at 65 without pricing both routes — what we do about it
- Carrying FEGLI into your seventies out of inertia — what we do about it
- Leaving a beneficiary designation unchanged after a divorce or a death — what we do about it
The review
What a review covers for you
All reviews are done online and take about 30 minutes. There is no cost and no obligation afterwards.
- Your current withdrawal arrangement and whether it is still the right one
- A drawing order across the annuity, the TSP and Social Security
- Where required minimum distributions land and what they will force
- The FEHB and Medicare decision at 65, priced both ways
- What FEGLI is costing you now and what it will cost at 75
- Survivor provisions and beneficiary designations, checked against your current circumstances
- Anything outstanding with OPM
Common questions
Questions we answer every week
Can I change my TSP withdrawal arrangement after I have started?
Some choices can be adjusted and some cannot. Installment amounts and frequency can generally be changed; a TSP life annuity purchase is permanent once made. Knowing which category a decision falls into before you make it is most of the value in this conversation.
Should I take Medicare Part B if I have FEHB?
There is no single right answer. Part B adds a premium and, for some plans, reduces or eliminates out-of-pocket costs; some FEHB carriers now reimburse part of it. The calculation depends on your plan, your health, your other coverage and your income-related premium bracket. It is worth doing properly, because the late-enrolment penalty is permanent.
Can I still reduce my FEGLI coverage?
Yes. Coverage can be reduced or cancelled at any time as a retiree, and Basic coverage has reduction elections that change what you pay from 65. What you cannot do is increase it again, so the decision is worth making deliberately rather than by leaving it alone.
What happens to my survivor election if I remarry?
A remarriage after retirement can allow you to elect a survivor annuity for a new spouse, generally within a limited window after the marriage and with a cost attached. Beneficiary designations for FEGLI, the TSP and any unpaid annuity balance are separate forms and are not updated automatically by anything else.
The best time to look at this is before you have set a date.
A benefit review takes about 30 minutes. Getting the date, the TSP, or the survivor election wrong costs considerably more, and most of it cannot be undone.
Book a No Cost Retirement Review
Or call 800-484-5993 — we answer during business hours, 9:00AM - 5:00PM EST, and we will call you back if you leave a message.