If you have moved from submitting a Form 450 to a Form 278, you have likely been promoted. Congratulations! That’s the good news. Here’s the bad news. The financial disclosure requirements for Form 278 are very extensive and complex. There are a lot of differences between the two forms, and here are some tips to keep in mind. Note, this is an introduction to Form 278, and it is not an exhaustive list of the financial disclosure requirements.
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Transitioning from full-time employment to retirement is not just a significant lifestyle change but requires a shift from saving and accumulating wealth to spending those hard-earned dollars to fund retirement. Part of the transition requires making important financial decisions, which can have a significant impact on your long-term wealth.
This article addresses 10 of the key decisions to consider, including Social Security timing, rolling your TSP into an IRA, streamlining your financial life, and taking the appropriate amount of risk.
A fee-only, trusted advisor, who looks out for your best interests and is there for you when retirement presents its challenges, can be invaluable. Sometimes an advisor’s biggest role is preventing one from making an irreversible mistake. (ClearLogic is a fee-only, fiduciary advisor.)
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Federal employees, whether CSRS or FERS, have many decisions – some of which are irrevocable – to make as they complete their retirement paperwork. (With almost half of our clients federal employees and retirees, ClearLogic guides federal employees in making the right decisions to optimize their retirement.)
Key decisions to make include: choosing their survivorship option, considering a partial rollover of your TSP, investing in the voluntary contribution plan, declining Medicare Part B, electing the 75% reduction paid up FEGLI option for life insurance, banking your sick pay leave payout, and selecting the best day of the month to retire (especially for CSRS).
These are 7 tips for federal retirement. (Because other decisions for retirement can vary, ClearLogic analyzes these based on individual specific circumstances.)
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Federal retirees with healthy retirement incomes are in a unique position when it comes to health insurance.
On the surface, Medicare Part B appears attractive, because you most likely will not incur any co-pays or co-insurance costs with your Federal Employee Health Benefit [FEHB] plan. Unlike Medicare Part A which is free, Medicare Part B premiums are significant – for an individual with an adjusted gross income just over $85,000 per year are $2,250 per year and for a married couple just over $170,000 are $4,500. Keep in mind the FEHB plan covers 100% of medical expenses once the annual out-of-pocket maximum is reached – typically $5,000 for an individual and $10,000 for a couple.
In most cases even with periodic, major medical expenses, carrying Medicare Part B in addition to an FEHB plan will cost more than it will save you in out-of-pocket costs. There are a few cases where the cost of carrying Medicare Part B more than pays for itself. It all depends on your individual circumstances.
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Filing a 278 financial disclosure form is an annual time-consuming and onerous task for most federal employees and military personnel often in positions of significant responsibility or highly compensated ones.
One must gather all the information to be filed, complete the form and its four schedules, and often revise it upon review by agency attorneys and/or ethics officials. At ClearLogic Financial, we manage all of our client’s financial assets under one umbrella reporting system and can run a single report to list almost all the items required on the 278. ClearLogic also uses a sophisticated investment approach to eliminate hundreds of potential conflicts of interest, thereby streamlining the listing of assets.
As part of our service to handle “all things financial” for our clients, ClearLogic prepares 278 forms for each of our federal and military clients. We consider it part of our professional role to make all financial matters easy for our clients.
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