We've Got You Covered

At the Trust, part of our mission is to enhance the quality of your life. And that may also mean the quality of your family's life. And, death is a part of life: as Ben Franklin said, death and taxes are the only two certainties in life.

Working Solutions sent out a recent mailer under that heading, and we hope that you'll review it with your loved ones to assess what your needs are for will preparation.

As a reminder, in addition to this special estate planning offer, the Trust also has you covered through insurance plans that can help you in the worst of times: basic life insurance, accidental death (& dismemberment) insurance and disability gap insurance. Currently, the Trust offers these plans to you after a year of continuous State Service and pays the cost for you, and Prudential administers the plans. Also, Prudential administers supplemental life insurance, which is offered to you as a new hire and at every open enrollment, as a way for you to provide extra coverage for your family.

Through your Unions, you may also be eligible for additional benefits: for example, OCSEA members have an additional $1,000 accidental death benefit available, and the OTC offers help with funeral arrangements. Check with your Union for more information about these possible benefits.

Here's an overview of how the coverage from the Trust works to protect you if you die or are disabled while covered by a Trust plan.

Basic Life Insurance

Coverage is automatically provided to you at no cost on the first of the month following one year of continuous State service.

Your benefit will be paid to your beneficiary if you die while covered under this plan. Your benefit is equal to one times your Basic Annual Earnings (rounded to the next higher thousand) up to the $150,000 maximum. Basic Annual Earnings equals your regular pay, not counting commissions, bonuses, overtime pay or any other pay or fringe benefits, times 2,080 hours (for full-time employees) or 1,040 hours (for part-time employees). See your paystub for the "total rate" - this is your Basic Annual Earnings amount.

If you die:

Accidental Death Benefit

As part of your automatically provided basic life insurance benefit, this coverage provides an additional benefit that could double your normal basic life benefit, up to a combined maximum of $300,000. Accidental death coverage varies by Union and unit. See your basic life insurance booklet-certificate for details.

Occupational-Only Accidental Death

• OCSEA,
• SCOPE/OEA,
• FOP/OLC unit 48,
• CWA

If you're injured on the job and die within 365 days as a result of the injury, your combined basic life and accidental death benefit is double your Basic Annual Earnings up to the maximum.

24-Hour Accidental Death and Dismemberment

• District 1199/SEIU,
• OSTA,
• FOP/OLC unit 2 and 46

If you're injured and die within 365 days as a result of the injury, your combined basic life and accidental death benefit is double your Basic Annual Earnings up to the maximum. The plan will also pay a benefit if you experience dismemberment when injured.

Supplemental Life Insurance

While optional, supplemental life insurance is an additional layer of coverage to help financially protect your family if you die while covered under the plan.

You may purchase the amount of supplemental coverage you need for yourself and coverage for dependents, up to plan limits. How much you can buy when you first enroll depends on whether or not you're willing to submit proof of good health; either way, the Trust has made sure you can get low-cost coverage.

• Without Evidence of Insurability (EOI)

If you are purchasing supplemental life for the first time, you may buy up to one times your Basic Annual Earnings or $100,000, whichever is less.

• With Evidence of Insurability (EOI)

You may buy up to six times your Basic Annual Earnings or $500,000, whichever is less, with evidence of insurability.

For your dependents, you can buy $10,000 coverage for your spouse and $5,000 for each eligible child at least 14 days old.

The cost for supplemental life insurance (for you and your spouse) is based on age, amount of coverage you select and smoking status. For dependent children, your cost is a flat fee, regardless of the number of children you cover.

Disability Gap Insurance

This is a very specialized benefit created by the Trustees of OCSEA Benefits Trust to replace certain disability benefits that would otherwise have been taken away due to changes in the 1997-2000 collective bargaining agreement.

This is also a very misunderstood plan: it does not offer additional pay during the time it takes to get your disability leave approved; nor does it offer payments that would restore your pay check to 100%; nor does it pay for long-term disability (more than 24 months in length total per leave). This plan does erase the lifetime maximum limits on disability leaves, which was a great concern because it was retroactive.

Under the disability gap insurance plan, you are eligible to collect benefits only after you exhaust all possible leave offered under the State's disability plan; again, the disability gap plan will not pick up if you've already taken 24 months of leave for that occurrence of disability.

If you become disabled and have reached the State plan lifetime maximum due to prior periods of disability, you're eligible to file for benefits under the disability gap insurance plan. If your application is approved, you may receive benefits for up to 24 months per occurrence. (The 24 months total includes any time you've taken for that specific occurrence under the State disability plan.) You may also file if you become disabled, and during the approved disability leave, reach the State plan lifetime maximum. The State's lifetime maximums are based on length of service:

1 year but fewer than 8 years - 24 months

8 years up to 16 years - 36 months

16 years or more - 48 months

Contact your Payroll/Personnel officer for more details, or see your disability gap booklet-certificate.

Working Solutions Service

While this benefit can help with health-related issues for you and your loved ones, it can also help you deal with serious legal and financial issues (with the exceptions of issues against the State, the Trust, your Union or Working Solutions Service itself).

Visit their website's online library of articles for targeted information on the subject that interests you. You can also call them at 800-358-8515 to explore how they can help.

If you're disabled: