THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2025 81 to substantial reductions. To learn more, attend an FSI retirement planning seminar or contact a retirement counselor at your agency. For Retirees 8. Marital Changes. Post-retirement divorce, marriage, or death of a spouse or former spouse are occasions to change your survivor annuity election by removing a former spouse or adding a new spouse. In addition, you will likely want to update your beneficiary designations for life insurance, annuity, and TSP savings, and adjust your Federal Employees Health Benefits election. Therefore, you should promptly report post-retirement marital changes to the Human Resources Service Center. For more information, see the 2025 Foreign Service Annual Annuitant Newsletter at www.afsa.org/retirement. 9. Survivor Benefits. If a Foreign Service employee dies, their agency automatically initiates the process of authorizing survivor benefits. But when a Foreign Service retiree dies, a next of kin must take the first step. Until that happens, no benefits can be paid to survivors. Because our family members often are unfamiliar with offices and functions in Foreign Service agencies, AFSA created a list of steps to take in the event of the death of a Foreign Service retiree. The checklist is in the 2025 AFSA Directory of Retired Members (page 24) and is posted at www.afsa.org/retirement. We suggest that retirees download and print the checklist (perhaps on a brightly colored sheet of paper), show it to your next of kin, and leave it in a place where they can easily find it if the need arises.
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