Life Insurance

The County provides a Basic life insurance benefit to all eligible employees.  This coverage is effective on the first day of the month following your employment provided that you are active at work on that day.  You may also purchase additional coverage through payroll deduction.

The County provides a Basic life insurance benefits at no premium cost to you.  The Basic life insurance includes the dependent coverage for enrolled dependents.  The Basic benefit paid by the County is either $15,000, $18,000 or $50,000, depending upon your classification and/or REO. 

* Must pay taxes on imputed income

** Domestic partner/same sex spouse and dependents of a domestic partner must be enrolled

All County employees covered under the Basic life benefit have Accidental Death & Dismemberment (AD&D) benefits equal to the amount of County paid life insurance.  Please refer to “Your Group Life Insurance Plan” booklet for details. 

The choices in the optional life insurance program are:  

• Option A - 1 times your annualized salary, up to $50,000 (this option includes your Basic coverage)
• Option B - 1 times your annualized salary, up to $500,000, plus your Basic coverage.
• Option C - 2 times your annualized salary, up to $500,000, plus your Basic coverage.
• Option D - 3 times your annualized salary, up to $500,000, plus your Basic coverage.

Premiums for any optional life coverage you select will be deducted from your paycheck and are determined by your age and your annualized salary.  For newly eligible employees, there is no medical underwriting if you enroll within 30 days of eligibility.  Once coverage begins, you may request to increase your coverage at any time, but the insurance company may not approve the increase if you have any adverse health conditions.

Employees covered under the Basic life insurance are eligible to receive a dependent coverage benefit of $2,000 or $5,000 for their spouse/domestic partner and dependent children (including the dependents of a domestic partner) age six months to age 19.  Dependents attending school as full-time students in an accredited secondary school, college, or university, who are not yet 24 years of age and are unmarried, are also covered.  For infants over 14 days old, but less than six months of age, the benefit is $200.  There is no benefit from birth to 14 days of life.

Although there is no direct cost to cover a dependent, the Internal Revenue Code requires that taxes be paid on the value (imputed income) of the total benefit if the benefit exceeds $2,000, or when the coverage applies to a domestic partner or the dependents of domestic partners that are not your IRS defined dependents.  In these situations dependents must be enrolled in the life insurance plan to be covered under this plan and in order to calculate the taxes and receive the benefit.

Where enrollment is required, new spouses, domestic partners, and dependent children must be enrolled within 30 days of initial employment and/or a “change in status” event.  Dependents may also be enrolled during Open Enrollment.  Spouses, domestic partners, and dependent children may be deleted from coverage at any time.
 

Please refer to the life insurance section (page 24) of the Summary of Benefits for rates. 

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