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Retirees Asked to Update Information on Life Insurance Beneficiaries
We understand retirees have received correspondence from Met Life Recordkeeping & Enrollment Services for Metropolitan Life Insurance Company. Several members have called and are concerned about providing their social security number or other sensitive personal information to them. As CMS previously advised us, the State of Illinois changed the state approved carrier providing Group Term Life Insurance for retirees as of July 1, 2021. Metropolitan Life (or Met Life for short) is the new state carrier for our Group Term Life Insurance benefit, and they have recently sent these letters to all state retirees. It seeks to provide all of us with the opportunity to confirm or update the information Met Life received from the previous carrier, Minnesota Life, regarding the beneficiary or beneficiaries you wish to designate to receive this important life insurance benefit the State of Illinois provides you.
If the letter you received is from Met Life Recordkeeping & Enrollment Services, specifies that it is for the State of Illinois and includes the correct customer number of 0029500, we encourage you to take this opportunity to review and update who Met Life has on file as one or more of your beneficiaries. This will help insure that upon your death they (and your representative) can be certain Met Life is properly distributing your life insurance benefits to the person(s) you want. The more personal identifying information you can provide them now regarding your designated beneficiaries, such as full legal name, relationship to you, current address, current phone number, date of birth, and their SSN, the more secure you can be that such benefits will actually be provided to the person(s) you wish upon your death. Without an updated beneficiary designation, Met Life advises that they have to distribute any proceeds for you based on the terms of the insurance certificate.
To update your beneficiary information, you can do one of the following:
- If you have access to a computer, go to www.metlife.com/stateofillinois and click on the View/Change Beneficiary button—this will take you to the MetLife website and you will be asked to login or register on this site. After you do that, click on the “My Accounts” tab up top, and you will see the Life Insurance card on that page. Click on the blue button “Add or update your beneficiary” and follow the rest of the instructions (items 6 & 7) under “What you need to do” in the letter you received from Met Life.
- Fill out the form that was sent to you and mail it back to MetLife.
- Call 1-800-880-6394, press option #4, enter your social security number (to confirm its really you), and proceed to update information as the system goes through each item.
If you have updated your life insurance beneficiary with MetLife after 7/1/2021 or find that the one you have on file is correct, you do not need to return the beneficiary designation form. Keep in mind, however, it never hurts to double check your beneficiary designation when given the opportunity. While the names may be correct, the contact information may be incomplete or out of date. Hopefully doing so will help prevent your spouse or other heirs from discovering after your death that this information was out of date (due to subsequent births, marriages, divorces and/or deaths) and you meant to change it but never took the time to do it. Take ten minutes now to make certain that everything is correct.
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Governors State of the State & Budget Adress for FY2023
On Wednesday, February 2, 2022, Governor Pritzker presented a combined State of the State Address AND his $45.4 billion Budget Address from the Old State Capitol. The State of the State address allows the Governor to highlight the good conditions of the state and perhaps suggest areas where improvements should be made. Most Governors use this time to laud the past year’s accomplishments. The Budget address is required by law to be given on a precise date and details the Governor’s spending PROPOSALs for the year.
Today, the Governor’s address had some interesting items that would affect state retirees. The Governor’s proposal would contribute an additional $500 million to the Pension Stabilization Fund for the State pension systems. He said that this would reduce future interest payments by $1.8 billion. He also wants to pay additional money to eliminate nearly $898 million owed for employee health insurance costs. His proposal spends nearly $900 million to the Rainy-Day Fund over FY22 and FY23.
Other items in his proposed budget are tax relief in the form of:
-$360 million by suspending the state’s tax on groceries;
-$135 million by freezing the planned gas increase;
-$475 million for property tax rebates in the form of up to a 5% rebate up to $300 for those homeowners who use property tax deductions on their state taxes.
From here, the General Assembly will begin analyzing his proposals and holding Appropriation committee hearings where many will come to testify. (The Senate has one Appropriation committee and 16 appropriation subcommittees. The House has five Appropriation committees with an additional 4 subcommittees.) Testimony will begin with each agency, who will outline the budget it needs to do its work and fund its various programs. Citizens, lobbyists, and all interested parties are also able to testify at the committee hearings and give input into how much should be spent on what programs.
If the General Assembly likes one of his proposals, agrees it is a priority, includes it in their budget, passes that budget by May 31, 2022, and the Governor approves that proposal in the budget, it will become law. Now comes the weeks/months of negotiations.
To hear the Governor’s speech, go to: Illinois State of the State Speech 2022
To view the proposed budget via a PowerPoint Presentation, go to: FY2023 Budget Book |
Longtime Lobbyist for RSEA Retires
Randy Witter, who has served as RSEA's legislative lobbyist since its inception, has retired.
The ILLINOIS TIMES published a nice piece on his career that is available for viewing at www.IllinoisTimes.com.
We appreciate all the hard work Randy has done on our behalf, and we wish him a LONG and HEALTHY retirement.
Taking over lobbying responsibilities for the RSEA is the firm of McGuire/Woods Consulting MWCLLC. |
UnitedHealthCare change to their Fitness Benefit -
for the year 2021:
You have access to SilverSneakers®, a Medicare fitness program. SilverSneakers includes a $0 membership fee for a standard, monthly membership at a participating fitness center.
To get your SilverSneakers ID number or to learn more about this benefit, visit SilverSneakers.com or call 1-888-423-4632, TTY 711, 7a.m. to 7p.m. CT, Monday through Friday.
for the year 2022:
You will have access to Renew Active® by UnitedHealthCare at no additional cost. Renew Active is the gold standard in Medicare fitness programs for body and mind. It includes a gym membership at a fitness location you select from UHC’s nationwide network (including the YMCA and Fit Club).
To learn more about Renew Active, visit UHCRenewActive.com. Once you become a member, you will need a confirmation code. Sign in to your plan website, go to Health & Wellness, and look for Renew Active or call the number on the back of your UnitedHealthCare member ID card to obtain your code. |
The Illinois State Employees Retirement System has issued the following warning to its members:
Warning! Many SERS members have recently received unsolicited, potentially misleading emails from companies not affiliated with SERS offering retirement counseling. These emails may appear to come from SERS or appear to represent SERS, they do not. SERS encourages members to be cautious of email solicitations and skeptical of any attempts by outside firms to request personal or financial information. SERS will NEVER contact you asking for personal information. If you are within a year of retirement and need an appointment, you can request an appointment by emailing [email protected] or by calling (217) 785-7444. |
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