Your Benefits Profile for 2023: Is it Up to Date?
As life changes, your benefits needs may change as well
Beneficiary Updates
It is important to ensure your beneficiary information is up to date in your benefits profile. As a reminder, your beneficiary is the individual named in your life insurance policy, retirement plan, and/or health savings account that will receive these benefits in case of your death. It’s imperative that you evaluate your current beneficiary designation whenever new changes occur before submitting any updated benefits elections.
Qualifying Life Events
In some cases, big life events are called a qualifying life event. A qualifying life event allows you to update your benefits outside of Open Enrollment or new hire eligibility enrollment. Below is a list of some of the most common events:
- Change of marital status (e.g., marriage, divorce, legal separation, death of a spouse)
- Change in dependents (e.g., birth, adoption, ineligibility due to age [children over 26], death of dependent
- Change in job status (e.g., your spouse loses benefit eligibility status under other coverage)
Is There a Deadline to Enroll in or Change my Benefits?
After a qualifying life event occurs, contact your local Human Resources Partner to open up your benefits enrollment to make the necessary changes. Typically, you will have 30 days after the event (e.g., birth of child, marriage, your spouse loses benefits coverage through their employer, etc.) to file an application to change your benefits.
Remember that when you make a change to your benefits due to a qualifying life event, your changes must be consistent with the event itself. For example, if a dependent loses eligibility due to age (over 26 years old), you cannot use that event to change medical plan selections for yourself.