Sobering - Life, Death and Benefits

[malaise]

A good friend died on Monday morning. She, her husband and I started our undergrad degrees together decades ago. She and I worked at the same institution. One of our benefits is three years pay for your spouse, children or whoever you choose if you die while employed. Her retirement date was Friday August 31. That made Monday September 3 the first working day of her retirement. That was seriously bad timing.
Life is a bitch and then we all die.

[MontanaMama]

1. This is terrible!

Had she been ill or was her death unexpected?

Either way, please accept my condolences.

[HipChick]

2. Sorry to hear this...had a colleague pass first week of retirement..

Not sure why its very common

[malaise]

6. Funny that you say that

I now know three folks who died shortly after their retirement date.

[Mollyann]

3. Labor Day

Does it count if Monday was a holiday?

[malaise]

4. Not our Labor Day

That's in May

[BSdetect]

5. Life. So brutal. So short. Old old saying. Roman / latin version originally.

[malaise]

7. Profound

[spanone]

8. So sorry....

[Meowmee]

9. So sorry

That is terrible😿

[lapfog_1]

10. Her company or institution is going to deny her life insurance

because she was "retired" for less than a day when she passed away?

can the institution simply change the date of her retirement to be a day later due to some paperwork issue or other?

[malaise]

12. We figure the insurance company will be the problem

not our former institution.
Truth be told, it's not even a full day. If she had died three hours earlier, there would be no issue.

[lapfog_1]

15. what I am suggesting is that the institution find a reason for her to still have been an employee

at the time of her death. The insurance company will likely be dicks about this.

So IF the institution can find any loophole that allows them to legally state that she was still employed... they have to pay up.

The very least that everyone can do in this situation is look for some reason. Even engage legal help to establish this for the insurance company.

Anyway, sorry for your loss.

[malaise]

18. I don't see how

Our retirement age is 65 and we are notified of the date one year in advance. It's usually two months before you turn 66'. We're hoping they work something out, but I doubt that the insurance company will deliver.

[haele]

20. Depends on how her premiums were paid. If they're in advance, and she paid during August,

She might still be covered for anywhere between two weeks to a full 30 days after the official retirement date. It all depends on how the insurance plan is set up.
My current employer's life insurance plan ends 30 days after the last week of paid work or accrued final leave, no matter if it's due to retirement or quitting/layoff/firing. The same situation happened during the first five years the company was in business, which hit the owners so hard, they wanted to make sure all employees still had complete coverage while they were "in transition" in terms of their benefits packages.

Over the years, I've known several people who have died soon (days or weeks) after they retired; mostly older (nearing 70 or older) "hard-chargers" with high stress careers - and a high-stress turn-over prior to retirement - with no "work" or hobby jobs planned after they actually left their last job.

For those people, it seemed that it's just that shock of not having to get up and go to work ever again - that there's no "meaning" for one to be anywhere - that hurts so much it kills.

I'm so sorry for you and your friend's family.

Haele

[malaise]

21. I'll tell her hubby to check that

after her funeral.

[MissB]

11. That really sucks

Where I work, you can choose to either take the full benefit or a slightly reduced one that would pass on to your spouse if you die before they do.

As a woman, I’m not sure if I’d choose the lower benefit because statistically speaking, women live longer than men.

Very sad about your friend- sorry for your loss.

[malaise]

14. Before or father the retirement date? n/t

[MissB]

16. Before. You have to make the decision on the way out the door

not after it closes.

I’ll just see where we are both at in terms of health when we get to that point. When we sit down with the financial advisor, the simulation is always me outliving DH.

[malaise]

17. We have other benefits plus our pensions

But losing this one by hours really sucks.

[panader0]

13. So sorry mal.....

My oldest friend of over 40 years died in October of 2012.
I still think of him every day.

[malaise]

19. Yep

Losing family and friend hurt although we just wanted her pain to stop. Pancreatic cancer is horrific.