AEELA death insurance: what it covers and the 60 days

There are two insurances, not one

Many people who have paid the AEELA premium for twenty years do not know exactly what they are paying for. **Article 26 of Act 9-2013** clarifies it: it decrees **the continuity of the death insurance benefit** and **creates insured-years-of-service insurance in place of the physical disability insurance**.

Two pieces of news there. First: they are **two distinct coverages** within the same premium. Second, and the one that surprises veteran members: **the physical disability insurance no longer exists**; it was replaced by the insured-years-of-service one. The same article provides that members insured when the statute took effect **continue covered by the benefits as they were**, substituting the physical-disability benefit for the insured-years-of-service one.

For money handling, the statute creates **a separate fund** in the Association's accounting for the insured-years-of-service insurance.

If your idea of your coverage is based on what someone explained when you joined the government decades ago, that idea probably no longer describes what you have.

The non-extendable 60 days upon leaving public service

This is the fact with the greatest consequences in this whole guide, and it is lost to ignorance every year.

**Article 34** provides that employees covered by this Act's benefits who **resign or are separated from their employment may continue covered by the death insurance benefits**, but that right **shall lapse if, during the non-extendable term of sixty (60) days following the date of their cessation from public service, they do not notify the Association in writing** that they will remain covered and will pay the corresponding premiums.

Read the word **non-extendable** again. It is not a term you can ask to have extended. Sixty days from cessation, in writing, to the Association.

Whoever notifies in time **pays a monthly premium equal to what active-service members pay** for death insurance in their respective categories. There is no penalty for leaving: there is a penalty for not giving notice.

And there is a second clock, in that article's final sentence: **those who stop paying those premiums for six (6) consecutive months shall lose all their rights to the insurance**, even if they timely met the notification requirement. Notifying is not enough: you must keep paying.

From when those 60 days count (and it is not obvious)

Article 34 devotes an entire paragraph to defining the **cessation date**, because the term runs from there. It is worth being clear before counting days:

• **Resignation:** the member is deemed to have ceased public service **on the date the appointing authority accepts the resignation**. But if **the effective date is later** than acceptance, cessation is deemed **the date the resignation becomes effective**.
• **Separation without appeal:** if the member was separated and **does not appeal**, the cessation date is the one on which the appointing authority's action **becomes final and firm** by no longer being subject to administrative or judicial review.
• **Separation with review:** if the member goes to court or an administrative body and **the action is affirmed**, cessation is deemed **from the date it was affirmed**.
• **Unpaid leave before leaving:** where the member requests unpaid leave and later leaves public service, the cessation date is **the latest of these three**: acceptance of the resignation, the date the separation becomes firm, or **the date the unpaid leave ends**.

Unpaid leave and suspension: you remain covered

Being unpaid is not the same as being out. **Article 33** provides that any member **on unpaid leave or temporarily suspended from employment and pay shall retain their rights** to the death and insured-years-of-service benefits, **provided that upon returning to their post the corresponding premium deductions resume**.

And the premiums for the months without pay? The statute calls them «back premiums» and says how they are collected: **directly from the member, or deducted from future loans granted by the Association, or from any benefit or refund** they are entitled to. The Assembly of Delegates adopts a regulation for that collection.

And here is the part that matters to the family, spelled out in the statute: **if the member dies while on unpaid leave, they remain covered**, and the premiums owed **are deducted from the Death Insurance benefits**. The debt does not cancel coverage: it is collected from the benefit.

The same article extends that rule to a member availing themselves of the benefit the statute provides **for those suffering a catastrophic illness**, provided that when applying they are on unpaid leave or intend to take leave for treatment that will prevent them from working.

Insured-years-of-service: two requirements, both mandatory

Death insurance is accredited, under **Article 27**, **by a certificate from the Demographic Registry** or by any other means prescribed by law. The insured-years-of-service benefit is computed **on the years the member has been insured in the corresponding category**, not years worked, but years **insured**.

To collect it you must meet **both** conditions in **Article 28**, not one:

• **(a)** Having contributed to the insurance for **a minimum of ten (10) years** from the date of joining it.
• **(b)** **Receiving or qualifying to receive a pension** for disability or years of service rendered **under the retirement system they belong to**.
• Note (b): that benefit is tied to your retirement system. If you do not qualify for a pension, it does not activate; even if you have paid the premium for twenty years.

Beneficiaries: the form, and what happens if you never filled it out

**Article 30** provides that insured members **must complete the Beneficiary Designation form** the Association provides, stating the names of the insurance beneficiaries in case of death.

That form is one of those things people fill out once, twenty years ago, and never look at again. Then come divorces, births and deaths, and the paper still says the same thing. It is worth requesting and reviewing today.

Now, the provision almost nobody knows and that saves families thousands of dollars and months of waiting. That same article says that, **upon the death of an insured member who has not completed the beneficiary designation, the Association shall process the declaratory-of-heirs proceeding at no charge**, as promptly as possible.

And it continues: **those proceedings shall be handled by the courts with all urgency, without needing to be placed on a special calendar**, and **the entire processing, through its conclusion and the issuance of certifications, shall be free of any fees whatsoever**.

That is: the statute obliged the court to hurry and stripped the proceeding of all fees. If your family has a deceased AEELA member with no beneficiary designation, that process exists, it is free, and it is urgent by mandate of law. Start by asking at the Association.

What it costs, and who decides what it costs

**Article 31** says the insurance **is divided into categories** as the Assembly of Delegates determines by regulation, and that **the monthly premium amount is set annually by the Executive Committee**, per **annual actuarial studies**, and **ratified by the Assembly of Delegates**. From those premiums, the percentages periodically determined for the Death Insurance Fund and for the Insured Years of Service Fund are set aside.

The same article leaves a door open for veteran members: **the first and second categories, at $7.00 and $3.50 monthly** for Death and Insured Years of Service insurance, **shall be maintained at the member's option** for employees who **joined that insurance before that Article took effect**. If you joined earlier, that option is yours and must be exercised; it does not arrive on its own.

Operationally, **Article 32** provides that the Executive Director **notifies the directors of governmental entities and of the retirement systems** of the monthly premiums to be deducted from salaries or pensions. That is why the premium appears on your pay stub without your doing anything.

And where does that money go? **Article 35** allocates premium income this way: **10% to a reserve fund** (to answer for pre-statute claims not yet paid and for future contingencies, except where the fund's solvency does not permit, and that reserve **shall not be less than 50% of the total income of the immediately preceding year**); **15% or less for the insurance plan's operating expenses**; and **the remainder to provide the death insurance**.

What this guide cannot tell you, and why

You will have noticed this guide does not say **how much** the death insurance or the insured-years-of-service benefit pays. That is not an oversight.

**Article 29** provides that **death and insured-years-of-service benefits shall be paid in the manner determined by the Assembly of Delegates, by regulation**. And **Article 31** leaves the categories and premium amounts to that same regulation and to the annual actuarial review. That is: **the amounts are not in the statute**, they are in regulations that get revised and that we could not verify from here.

Publishing a figure from a forum or an old article would be worse than publishing none: someone would plan around it. What is in the statute (the deadlines, the requirements, who decides, what happens if you do not give notice) is what you just read, and it is exactly what people lose for not knowing.

For amounts, your category and the beneficiary form, the source is AEELA. Request your **annual account statement**, which Article 18 of that same statute requires the Association to send you.