We talk about death so you don't have to: A conversation about ERS' Optional Term Life Insurance

Life insurance is important for many families. That's why we want you to know exactly how it can help protect your loved one's financial security. And with Summer Enrollment coming up with the chance to add or change your coverage, it's a good time for us to talk with Securian's Lynn Gordon, who demystifies this complex and important benefit.

Covered in this episode:

• Term life insurance vs. permanent/whole life insurance
• Understanding evidence of insurability (EOI)
• The importance of naming beneficiaries
• Reevaluating the need for coverage as your life and financial situation changes
• What happens with your term life insurance when you retire and the process when you die.
• Resources

lifebenefits.com/plandesign/ers

Chapters

• 2:25 Term life insurance vs. permanent/whole life insurance
• 9:30 Understanding evidence of insurability (EOI)
• 13:44 The importance of naming beneficiaries
• 20:13 Reevaluating the need for coverage as your life and financial situation changes
• 24:14 What happens with your term life insurance when you retire and when you die.
• 39:23 Resources

Transcript

Intro: For most people, this kind fo stuff is no fun. Nobody really wants to talk about death or facing death. It's just really hard. 

Life insurance is important for many families. That's why we on the Money Talks podcast want you to know exactly how it can help protect your loved one's financial security. And with Summer Enrollment coming up with the chance to add or change your coverage, it's a good time for us to talk with Securian's Lynn Gordon, who demystifies this complex and important benefit.

Kathryn Tesar: Welcome to Money Talks. I'm Kathryn Tesar in the Benefits Communications Division of the Employees Retirement System of Texas. Lynn Gordon of Securian and I are joining up on the podcast this month to offer some insights about the optional term life insurance available through the Texas Employees Group Benefits Program. Securian is the third party administrator of ERS's life and accidental death and dismemberment or AD&D insurance. Lynn, thanks for joining us today. A lot of our employees and retirees are enrolled in Optional Term Life Insurance. More than 216,000 people total. But based on questions I get when I staff benefits fairs and webinars or things I see on our Facebook page, I feel like some of them don't fully understand exactly how it works. So I'm looking forward to this opportunity to provide some information. 

Lynn Gordon: Thanks, Katherine. I'm really happy to be here. Life insurance is so important for so many families, and I want people to understand exactly how it can help protect their loved one's financial security. And now's a good time to do it because we're coming up on summer enrollment the opportunity for people to make changes to their coverage if they need to. 

KT: I'm gonna be honest that I might not seem like the best person to talk about Optional Term Life Insurance because I'm actually not enrolled in it. I don't have anyone who's dependent on my income and I don't have a lot of debt. I have enough money I think saved uh, to cover my end of life expenses so my loved ones won't have to do it for me. But I've been at ERS for about thirteen years and over that time I've learned more than the average person about how term life insurance works. And I've been working in life insurance for twenty-nine years. So I think that between the two of us, we can provide some really good insight. 

LG: Well, I hope so.

LG: Let's get going. So, I want to start by pointing out that ERS offers term life insurance. What does that mean? 

KT: Well, that word term is really important because it means you have coverage only as long as you're paying the premiums and employed by an agency or higher education Institution that participates in the Texas Employees Group Benefits Program, or as you call it, the GBP. Retirees who are eligible for the GBP benefits can participate too, but if you leave employment at a state agency or participating higher education institution before you're eligible for retiree benefits, the coverage will end. Should you leave employment, you do not get any of the premiums back, which is a good thing to note. Life insurance acts just like your auto or homeowner's insurance. You're paying for the protection in the event something should happen. 

KT: Yeah, and I know from experience that some of our members are really surprised to hear that. I think they think that life insurance, the life insurance they get through ERS, through the GBP, is permanent life insurance or what some people call whole life insurance. And I'm going to admit, I, I didn't know there were different types of life insurance until I started working here. But the difference is important. So can you explain that difference to us? 

LG: Sure. Sure, term life insurance and permanent life insurance are different products, but both can be very important coverage to have. And really here's why. Term Life provides a cost effective solution to bulk up your level of protection specifically during your working years. So it's added protection during those working years. And it's typically coverage you get through your employer. And it helps when an unexpected death would likely have the biggest financial impact on your family during those working years. Permanent or whole life is a solution well-suited for end-of-life expenses such as medical bills, Funeral costs, estate management, and things like that. It's generally more expensive than term insurance because it lasts for the policyholder's entire life. Permanent life insurance might be something you select as a base, buying only the amount of coverage your family will truly need for final expenses. You associate with dying late in life. And then you can use the term insurance you get through your employer to help supplement that. 

KT: Okay, well thanks for that explanation. It sounds like you're saying that most employees should have both permanent and term life insurance. 

LG: Well, like a lot of financial decisions, it's personal based on your personal financial situation. Someone with kids in school twenty-five years left on their mortgage and other debt like student loans probably should consider both permanent life insurance and a good amount of term insurance. Another person whose kids are grown, out of college, and no longer dependent on their income, who doesn't have a lot of debt, And whose spouse has their own job or other reliable source of income, that person might want to carry just permanent life insurance or permanent plus a small amount of term life. And then there's someone like you with no dependents and enough money saved that you feel secure not carrying any life insurance except the $5,000, basic term insurance the state provides as part of the employee's Health coverage.

KT: That's right. And I think most employees know that they do have that basic term life insurance coverage. Of $5,000, it's not a lot of money, it's probably not going to do much to support your family if you die during your working years, but it is a little something that you would get if you died as an active employee. If you have, uh, health coverage through ERS. So it's all a lot to think about, and something a lot of people probably don't really want to think about. I mean, I don't know anyone who enjoys contemplating their own death and doing math. But fortunately, we, you and I, Lynn, we're benefits nerds and, we have some ideas that might help. 

LG: You're right, Kathryn. For most people, this kind of stuff is no fun. Nobody really wants to talk about death or facing death. It's just really hard. To help, though, Securian offers an online calculator ERS members can go to, and it is on our website. Which is lifebenefits, all one word, dot com, forward slash, plandesign, forward slash, ERS. Once you get to the site, you can scroll down to about the middle of the page where you'll see a link to calculate the amount of insurance you might need. And you can, provide a lot of information to get a detailed estimate or just spend a few minutes with our quick calculator.

KT: Okay, those are, those are really good resources. I've gone in and I've played around, with both the quick calculator and the detailed estimate even though I know I don't really need the benefit. I just wanted to see how it works. And they are really good resources. So thank you for letting us know about that. Let's say that you've used the calculator on the site, Securian's calculator, and you've figured out how much term life insurance you should have, and you plan to apply for that coverage during your upcoming summer enrollment phase. What if I want permanent life insurance too? 

The GBP doesn't offer permanent life insurance. And that's really because actually that's something a lot of our members ask us about. I think we used to offer it decades ago, but we don't anymore. But the reason we can't offer it or don't offer it anymore is it's not really available as a group insurance plan at cost that would be reasonable for our members. Knowing it's not available through the GBP, Lynn, do you have any suggestions for finding permanent life insurance outside of ERS?

LG: Yeah, you're right, Katherine. It is very rarely that permanent insurance is part of a group plan that's offered through your employer. It's typically something that you go out and purchase on your own through an agent, website, what have you. So if you're interested in getting permanent life coverage, you may have to get that individual policy. And if you don't know an agent already, there's all kinds of resources out on the internet. You can talk to the person that you get your home or auto coverage through, and another good reliable resource is just friends, neighbors, family members that may already have some insurance and they can connect you with a reputable person to obtain that coverage. Your bank or your credit union might also be a great place to start. 

KT: Okay, so once you've calculated the coverage you need and you've signed up for ERS's optional term life insurance, and maybe some permanent life insurance somewhere else, you can rest easy, right? You’re covered.

LG: Well, not exactly. And that'll help us move on to our next topic. Because most people who apply for optional term life insurance during summer enrollment have to go through what we call evidence of insurability or the EOI process. 

KT: Yes, that's exactly right, Lynn. I wanted to make sure we talk about EOI because it is really important. It's going to affect whether or not you get coverage. After a 31-day grace period when they first start their job, an employee or retiree who wants optional term life coverage has to go through evidence of insurability to get approved for that coverage. That's really all there is to it. You have that, that one month grace period and then, you have to use EOI, anytime. So what does, uh, EOI usually entail? 

LG: Well, Katherine, it's really a very simple process. For most people, it's just a mattering, or actually for all people, a matter of answering a few questions about their health. And then based on their responses to the standard questions that Securian asks, Securian can usually make a decision about their coverage pretty quickly. If the member utilizes our online portal to make the application, it can be almost real time. But for relatively few, we, there are other things that we need to gather. We may need to require what we call a paramed exam, which is a short physical exam that would take place in the member's home so we can get more information to make a decision on their coverage. Just to note too that Securian will schedule that exam and Securian pays for that exam. 

KT: Okay. Members can learn more about the EOI process during summer enrollment. There's information in the summer enrollment guide that ERS mails to every member. And you can attend a life insurance webinar or talk with Securian, maybe even Lynn, at a summer enrollment fair. The webinar and fair schedules are also in the summer enrollment guide. So you can see when we might be somewhere near you if you want to come to a fair or if you want to just log into a webinar. And those are also on the ERS website. And, you know, just to continue about EOI, the fact is some people aren't going to get coverage with optional term life insurance if they have certain health conditions. That's why it's a good idea to enroll in this coverage and optional term life in your first month as an employee. But if you didn't enroll as a new employee and you don't get coverage later because of health conditions identified through the EOI process, you can reapply every year during summer enrollment or with a qualifying life event.

LG: That's right, Katherine. If you really think your family would benefit from having optional term insurance, you can keep trying, especially if any of the health conditions you had previously are well behind you. If you haven't had a change in your health status, chances are you might get denied again, but if those, any of those health conditions have changed, I would recommend reapplying. 

Before we move on from EOI, another thing to note is that if you already have optional term life insurance coverage and want to increase it, for example, go from two times your annual salary to three times, you'll have to go through EOI. If you are denied on, for that increase based on EOI, it will not affect your current coverage. That will stay in place no matter what. You will still be covered at the two times your annual salary. And again, as mentioned before, you can apply with EOI again in the future to increase it at a future summer enrollment. If perhaps the health condition that you were denied for has changed or improved.

KT: If an employee is approved and their optional life insurance coverage starts, what else do they have to think about? 

LG: Well, one step is really important, Kathryn, and they need to name one or more beneficiaries who would get the payment in the event of their death. If you don't name at least one beneficiary, the payment will follow what we call plan priority. Which means we would look for a spouse. If there's no spouse, we would then look for children to pay out to. If there's no children, then we would look to parents and then the estate. By designating a beneficiary, you make sure the funds are distributed per your wishes. It can also delay payment if a beneficiary is not designated. So we want to make this process as smooth and quick as possible. So it really is important to make sure you have a beneficiary designated. 

KT: Yeah, and Lynn, I know we're going to talk later about some circumstances that can happen, some real life things that have happened when people haven't named their beneficiaries appropriately. Heartbreaking in some cases. I want to note that ERS is the organization that manages the process to name a beneficiary and there are a few steps to it. This is something we get a lot of questions about because the process isn't, I'll be honest, we at ERS, we're not perfect. And, uh, we do have some things that are maybe a little more difficult than they should be or aren't, aren't super obvious, but, there, there are a couple of steps to the process to name a beneficiary. The first one is that you, you should go to your ERS online account, which you can get through ers.texas.gov and in ERS Online once you're, you're You've logged into the system. There's a section for beneficiaries. You can go to that section and take the steps to name or change. Before you go, you should know that, you'll need the first and last names, dates of birth, and social security. Number for each beneficiary you want to designate. So if you have a spouse and three kids and you want to name each of those people as a beneficiary, you'll need that information for each of them. And you can name as many beneficiaries as you want. Some people think that they all have to be family members. They do not. People have named good friends as beneficiaries or other people who they want to have something after they die. So you can name as many as you want. And you'll be asked to put a percentage of the payout that they should get if you name multiple. That percentage should equal one hundred and in our system, if it doesn't, it will tell you that you need to go back and, and change your percentages so they add up to 100 exactly. And then once you've saved those designations online, this is the thing that a lot of our members miss, unfortunately. You have to print the form. There's a form that you have to print out. It comes up, once you've, you've saved your beneficiaries and the designations. You have to print that. You have to sign it in front of a witness. And send it back to ERS. Like I said, a lot of people don't know they need to return that signed document to us and so their beneficiary designations never get finalized. One way you can check that is, if you go into your ERS online accounts, you might see that it says beneficiaries pending in your beneficiary section. That means that you haven't completed the process. And for most people that means they haven't mailed that signed form in. I also want to mention you don't have to get that document notarized. So you don't have to go out and find a notary and pay them, to sign your form in front of them. It just has to be witnessed by somebody, somebody who's not one of the named beneficiaries. So, it can be a co-worker, it can be your neighbor, it really can be anyone. They just have to, you just have to sign it in front of them and then they have to sign, that witness has to sign it as well. 

LG: Yeah, Katherine, I agree that probably the biggest point is people don't realize that that form has to be sent back into ERS to officially update their beneficiaries. I hear that a lot when I'm out on the benefit fair circuit for summer enrollment, so that's a key point to remember. And it just is really crucial to name your beneficiaries, and it's also important to make sure they know they are your beneficiaries and what they need to do in the event you should pass away. And their first step they need to do is contact ERS. The other important thing to note as well is that having a will does not impact your life insurance beneficiaries. So a lot of people think, well, I've got this named in the will. When it comes to paying out the life insurance benefit under this plan, it has no bearing. It will go to the designation on file with ERS. The whole point in having life insurance is to help your loved ones after your death and coverage won't be much help to them if they don't know about the coverage or if you didn't complete the beneficiary process. 

KT: Exactly, Lynn. I think some people might be surprised at the amount of life insurance benefits that go unclaimed simply because the beneficiaries didn't know about the policies. And that's not necessarily in ERS's plan, but in the life insurance industry overall. And those, I think, end up going to like those unclaimed funds and you see people's names on there. So I'll also mention, you know, if, if maybe you're reluctant to tell your beneficiary because you're afraid maybe they might Consider committing some kind of foul play to get that money. Well, maybe you need to name a different beneficiary. 

LG: Agreed.

KT: So all our listeners now know what to do about evidence of insurability or EOI and their beneficiaries. What else, Lynn? 

LG: Well, you can change your coverage and your beneficiaries as life changes. Earlier we talked about how different families have different needs. Of course those needs might change over time. And ERS currently offers optional term life insurance at one to four times an employee's annual salary. So let's say you originally got coverage at four times your annual salary because you were carrying a mortgage, other debt, perhaps you had small children. And no matter what might happen, you wanted your two kids to be able to go to college. But now, it's twelve years later. Your older child is out of college and the younger is graduating next year. In other words, you're getting them off your payroll. You've paid off most of your mortgage and you don't have any other significant debt. First, congratulations, that's great. Second, it's probably a good time to reevaluate your optional term life insurance. You might decide that only one or two times your annual salary is enough at this stage in your family's life. That would save you money on your monthly premium and still provide enough financial protection for them. You really should think about your life insurance coverage with every big change in your life. The birth of a child, a divorce, your children or spouse achieving financial independence, paying off or significantly reducing a big loan and so on. Financial security can be an emotional topic, so use Securian's insurance calculator if you need help looking at it more objectively.

KT: If you do want to change your optional term life coverage, you can do that within thirty-one days of qualifying life events like marriage or a new child or a divorce or things like that. Or you can do it during your next summer enrollment phase. Now if you want to increase your coverage, say from one time to two times, or I'm sorry, from one time your annual salary to maybe three times your annual salary, you will have to do that with EOI as we mentioned earlier. If you want to decrease or drop your coverage, you don't need EOI to do that, but keep in mind that But if you drop or decrease your optional term life coverage and later decide that you want to re-enroll or increase it again, you will have to go through EOI. You might not get coverage if your health has changed since, uh, you applied the first time. So you should think really carefully about dropping or decreasing coverage, especially if you have any health conditions that would prevent you from getting coverage in the future. And I will say that those health conditions with EOI are not necessarily just, you know, major things like cancer or you've had a heart attack in the past. It can be having high blood pressure. Or being a certain amount overweight. So, if you are thinking about dropping or decreasing your life coverage, uh, again, think about your current health. And think about what your needs are long term, with the understanding that you might not be able to increase or enroll again. 

LG: I want to encourage everyone to think about their beneficiaries in the same way. At different times in your life, you might want to change your beneficiary, just like you might want to change the amount of coverage you have under the optional group life plan. Things to consider. Do you have a new child in your family? Did you get divorced? Just like you should reevaluate your coverage with every major life change, you should also look at that beneficiary designation. 

KT: You can change your beneficiaries any time of the year. You don't have to wait for a qualifying life event or summer enrollment. Just follow the full process we described earlier, including signing the form in front of a witness and sending it back to ERS. 

LG: Now there are a couple other things we get questions about, Katherine, that I want to discuss. First, people ask what happens to their optional term life insurance when they retire. And then secondly, some ask what the claims process is when they die. 

KT: Okay, well, I'm going to start with the first question cause ERS sets the policies for this. Currently if you retire with at least 10 years of service, you're eligible to participate in some GBP plans, including optional term life insurance. But your coverage might not stay the same, and that's important to know. Depending on the situations, and everything is a little complicated with ERS, nothing simple. So depending on the situation, there are four ways that optional term life insurance can go for retirees. Situation one is if you have optional term life insurance coverage at three or four times your annual salary. If you don't take any action when you retire, your coverage is automatically going to drop to two times your current annual salary. That is the salary you were making right before you retired. You can decrease it even further. You can take it down to one time your annual salary at retirement or you can enroll in what we call the retiree fixed optional life insurance, which provides just $10,000 of coverage. Now situation two is if you have coverage at one or two times your annual salary when you retire. If you do nothing, your coverage is going to stay the same. But you can decrease it from two to one time your annual salary or you can decrease it to that $10,000 fixed coverage. In situation three, let's say you don't have any optional term life insurance coverage uh, as an active employee, so you're like me, you don't have any optional term life coverage. In that case, when you retire, you can apply with EOI for the retiree $10,000 fixed coverage. The fixed coverage at $10,000 is the only optional life insurance available to retirees who weren't enrolled as active employees. And evidence of insurability is required for it. The last situation applies to retirees who return to work for a state agency or higher education institution that participates in the GBP. A return to work retiree can choose retiree or active employee benefits, and if they choose the active benefits, they can apply for optional term life insurance at one to four times their annual salary, just like an employee who hasn't retired yet. However, that coverage, if they're approved with EOI, because they will need EOI, it will be based on their new salary. And if they want to keep that optional term coverage when they retire for good, it will be one or two times the final salary they made as a return to work retiree, not the salary they had when they originally retired. 

LG: Lots of things to think about, Katherine. Some people wonder why there aren't higher coverage options for retirees, and this goes back to what we were talking about earlier. The fact that term life insurance is really meant to provide some financial security When you're working and have a family dependent upon your income, so for those working years. The theory or the presumption is that by the time you retire, hopefully your kids are mostly grown, And maybe you don't have as many major expenses, you no longer have a mortgage or any student loans, and so therefore your need for life insurance actually goes down and you don't need as much as you perhaps needed during those working years. 

KT: And, and we know that's not true of every retiree, of course. Some people still want a measure of financial security for their families after they retire. And that's why ERS offers optional term life insurance to retirees. But it raises another important point about your coverage and premiums as you age. Most people with our optional term life insurance are aware, or they should be aware, that their monthly premiums go up as they get older, even if their coverage doesn't change at all. Currently, starting at age 30 your premiums will increase every five years when your age ends in zero or five. At first, the age-based premium increases are pretty small, but they get bigger as you get older. And what too many people don't seem to realize, even though it's on our write sheets that we put out every year and that are on our website all year round, is that when you turn 70 whether you're retired or still actively employed, the amount of your coverage starts going down every five years too. So in addition to those premiums going up, your coverage is going down. Starting at age seventy the optional term life coverage, that is the amount your beneficiaries will get if you die, drops to 65% of whatever level you were at before you turned 70 And you'll still have that age-based premium increase. So, as an example, let's say Gina is 69 years old and she has a salary of $84,000 a year. She has coverage at two times her annual salary or $168,000 worth of coverage. In the next year, after she turned 70 her coverage will drop to about $109,000, which is 65% of her coverage before age 70 and her monthly premiums will increase from about $165,000 a month to around 262 dollars a month. That's a lot less coverage and a much higher premium. And every five years her coverage will keep dropping and her premiums will keep going up. If you want to see exactly how much the premiums increase and coverage decreases as you age, you can go to ers.texas.gov On the homepage, about halfway down on the right of the screen, there's a yellowish box with links to premium rates. Click the link for employees and survivors. On the next page, find the premium rate for the current plan year that says not eligible for Medicare. This will bring up a four page PDF. On the last page are term life insurance rates and information. The life insurance information on this sheet applies to all employees and retirees whether or not they're eligible for Medicare. 

LG: Kathryn, I do want to note that raising premiums based on age and decreasing coverage starting at age seventy isn't something that just ERS does. It's very standard practice in the insurance industry and especially in group insurance plans that you get through your employer. Again, with the understanding that you probably have less need for term insurance as you get older and also because the insurer takes on a greater risk as you get older. That's why it's really important to look at your coverage from time to time, both the premium costs and the payout. Your life will go through changes and your term insurance will go through changes too. You need to evaluate the cost of the coverage is still worth the benefit to your family. It might be and it might not be. It's really up to you on your personal financial situation. 

KT: Thanks for explaining that, Lynn. I do sometimes occasionally get questions, people saying, well, why is ERS doing this? And it's really just... It, I mean, it is an ERS decision, but it's based on practices that are standard in the industry. And it's really for the sustainability of the group plan. You know, if we didn't take these measures, the plan would be out of money in a very short time. And so speaking about money, uh, let's talk about the payout. What happens with your policy when you die? 

LG: Well, after a participant dies, filing a claim and getting the payout can be pretty quick and easy if beneficiaries are designated correctly. And the employee or member has told their beneficiaries to contact ERS after their death. Just as a notation, the beneficiaries must contact ERS. Unfortunately, if they call Securian directly, we cannot take that information. The claim notification needs to go through ERS. So when ERS is notified of a death, they will send a packet out to the beneficiary. And if there's more than one beneficiary, each beneficiary will get a packet. It will include a beneficiary statement form that each beneficiary needs to complete. It also requests a death certificate. Both the beneficiary statement form or forms and a copy of the death certificate should be sent directly to Securian and there's addresses on the forms and in the information packet. We only need one copy of the death certificate, so not every, if there's multiple beneficiaries, not every beneficiary needs to submit a death certificate. And I also want to stress that we can accept a copy of a death certificate. It does not need to be the original. Then depending on the circumstances of the death, we may need some additional documents. If the cause of death is the result of an accident, we may need to get a police report, some of those types of things. Securian will request those documents as needed and if needed directly from the beneficiary. And as always, the sooner we get all the forms and all the paperwork, the better. Once Securian receives all the necessary documents and information for the processing the claim, we typically issue payment within four business days and sometimes it's even faster than that. And there are two forms of payment. We will either issue a check or we can do an electronic funds transfer. The beneficiary would just indicate on the form which they prefer.

KT: I remember, Lynn, when I was first learning about life insurance here, I was really surprised at how quickly y'all can process claims, once you get them in. And, yeah, I think that's great. I wouldn't have thought it would be so fast. 

LG: We really try to do our best and it's really gratifying for us to be able to work fast because we know a lot of times, the money is critically important to these beneficiaries. They perhaps need it to pay for the funeral, pay monthly bills, pay medical bills, or even bigger expenses like tuition for the upcoming semester, all of those types of things. And as I mentioned, sometimes the beneficiaries need it to pay for the end of life expenses. So our goal is to move as quickly as possible. But we've got to have the right documents and be able to confirm the beneficiaries.

KT: What happens if things aren't all in order? 

LG: Well, it can be pretty frustrating for the loved ones or really sad if the deceased didn't finish their beneficiary designation or if they didn't update their beneficiaries. Families might have to wait a long time to get any type of payment. And especially if they didn't designate a beneficiary and we have to follow that plan priority that I spoke of earlier where It would go to a spouse, and if there's no spouse, children, and so on. One of the biggest things we probably come across is when we get to parents or children, of the deceased and the family will tell us well that the deceased had no relationship and hadn't talked to the parent in. Years, decades. It, sadly, if they have not designated a beneficiary and we have to follow priority and it gets down to the parents, we have to pay That other parent, even though they had no relationship whatsoever with the deceased. 

KT: A lot of times, too, in the situation of divorce, people forget to update their beneficiary and we cannot pay out to Ex-spouse, unless the designation specifically states ex-spouse. So say, for example, you're married, you get divorced, and you never update your beneficiary. We cannot pay out to the person that's listed as spouse. We would then have to go to the line of descendancy in the plan. So, it's just, I can't stress enough how important it is to name a beneficiary and make sure that designation is up to date. And I really strongly suggest you look at it yearly, life changes, and you need to perhaps look at changing your beneficiary as a result. Changing or updating, it sounds like, even how they're designated on your form, so if they were designated as a spouse and you got divorced, but you still want them to get your life insurance payout. You would have to go back in and redesignate them as an ex spouse. 

LG: Right.

KT: And I think a lot of people don't realize that. And it's, it's not a matter of ERS or Securian and being pardon the term hard asses and just like you don't want to help me. This is the law and we have to follow the law. Policyholders can help us by taking these steps. It's, it's not hard. Yes, there are a few steps in the process, but it's really not hard to update your beneficiaries and a lot of people who know to do so, they time that annual review with summer enrollments, you know, around the same time as summer enrollment when they're looking at all of their benefits for the year. And I mean, really, Lynn, it sounds to me like one of the most important, kindest things a person can do is to review their beneficiary designations regularly. Update them as they need to and then make sure their beneficiaries know what to do to file a claim if they die. 

LG: Exactly. That's very true, Kathryn. And as I mentioned at the start of our podcast here, I've been working in life insurance for 29 years. And sadly have seen a lot of unpleasant situations that really could have been avoided had people either designated a beneficiary or updated their beneficiary.

KT: I know life insurance probably seems boring to a lot of people or just something you do because you have to or it's expected of you But honestly, I think enrolling in life insurance is an act of love, you know, I mean It's a great benefit to have and like with all the benefits ERS manages, we really want people to understand how to use it. Lynn, I want to thank you for joining Money Talks today. It's been a great help and a real pleasure to have you on the podcast and I hope we've provided some good information and education. 

LG: Thank you so much for having me, Kathryn. As I said, 29 years in the life insurance business, it's pretty much been my life's work. And I really try to do all I can to help people get the coverage that's right for them. Before we go, I want people to know where they can find more information about the Optional Term Insurance Program through the Texas Employee Group Benefits Program. You mentioned the summer enrollment guides, benefit fairs, webinars, and I look forward to hopefully seeing some ERS members as I'm out and about in the state doing some of the benefit fairs and answering questions on the webinar. We do have information available year-round, 24-7 on the plan website, which is located at lifebenefits.com forward slash plandesign, all one word, People can also call us at 877-494-1716 Monday through Friday seven a.m. to six p.m. Central Time and the team that answers the phone is there to help. 

KT: Thanks again, Lynn, And thank you to everyone who's been listening. You know life insurance is important, but I hope now you also know it doesn't have to be hard. I hope everyone will take care. As always, if you have comments for us, please send them to story underscore ideas at ers.texas.gov because we'd love to hear your thoughts on Money Talks.