Federal Employees’ Group Life Insurance (FEGLI) Program: Insurance Misrepresentations and Deceptive Sales Practices

 (Excerpts)

Background
We have become aware in recent months of instances in which agencies and employees are being contacted by insurance company salespeople who may be misrepresenting themselves as either having permission from OPM or being connected to the Office of Federal Employees’ Group Life Insurance (OFEGLI), (the administrative unit of MetLife that processes claims for deceased Federal employees) or the Federal Employees’ Group Life Insurance Program.

No Sales Agents or Telephone Solicitation
Neither OPM nor OFEGLI has endorsed any kind of privately-sponsored life insurance plan. The FEGLI Program is the only government-wide group life insurance program authorized by OPM. OPM has no connection with, nor responsibility for, any other life insurance product, whether or not it is represented as “supplemental” to the FEGLI Program. Furthermore, the FEGLI Program does not use sales agents nor does it use telephone solicitations of any kind. No one from the FEGLI Program or OFEGLI will ever contact employees at their worksite (or at home) in person or by phone to sell life insurance. If agents are trying to sell life insurance to employees, they are most assuredly NOT connected with the FEGLI Program.

Premiums for FEGLI coverage are withheld from employees’ salaries. FEGLI premiums are not withheld through voluntary allotments. A request from a life insurance company to set up a voluntary allotment from an employee’s pay means that the life insurance product is not connected in any way with the FEGLI Program.

The second major issue is whether the salespeople have permission to be on Government property or to be soliciting on the job in the first place.

Please alert your employees about these important issues and thank you for your help.

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