Every Day Benefits

Life Events

Overview

Whether you’re saying “I do” or growing your family, here’s what you need to know about how your life change affects your benefits.

What’s a Qualifying Life Event?

Marriage, divorce or legal separation
Move from part-time to full-time employment
Your spouse or child passes away
Birth or adoption of a child or a change in legal guardianship
Gain or loss of other benefits coverage (through your spouse, parent or another job)*

Changing Your Coverage

Keep these tips in mind:

Know the rules

Outside of Open Enrollment, you can only make changes during the year if you have a life event, such as marriage, birth or adoption. See the chart below for more details.

Understand what changes you can make

Depending on the nature of your status change, you can add or drop a dependent or waive coverage. Any changes in coverage must be consistent with your life event change.

Don’t miss the deadline

You have 31 days from the date the life event occurred to make updates to your benefit elections. If you miss this deadline, you’ll have to wait until the next Open Enrollment. Changes will be effective on the date of the status change, as long as you notify the Benefits department within 31 days of the event.

*If you become eligible or lose eligibility for state-provided healthcare coverage (CHIP or Medicaid), you have 60 days to make a change to your coverage.

Please note: If you change your status from full-time to part-time, your benefits will not automatically end. You have 31 days to fill out and submit a change form electing to drop your benefits; otherwise, your benefits will continue.

Life Event Changes at a Glance

Life Event	Your Coverage	Spouse/DP Coverage	Child Coverage	Required Documentation
Marriage¹	Add or Drop	Add	Add or Drop²	Marriage certificate
Domestic partnership (DP)¹	Add or Drop	Add	Add or Drop²	Domestic Partnership Declaration Form and/or notarized affidavit
Divorce/legal separation/dissolution of domestic partnership	Add	Drop	Add or Drop (drop if not your dependent)	Divorce decree, legal separation document, or proof of dissolution of domestic partnership
Birth or adoption¹	Add	Add	Add	Birth certificate or adoption papers
Guardianship	Add	N/A	Add	Legal papers
Death of spouse/DP	Add	Drop	Add	Death certificate
Death of eligible dependent	N/A	N/A	Drop	Death certificate
Dependent ineligible (reached maximum age)	N/A	N/A	Drop	No documents required
Spouse/DP now covered by their employer	Drop	Drop	Drop	Proof of benefit coverage from employer
Spouse/DP makes changes at Open Enrollment³	Add or Drop	Add or Drop	Add or Drop	Proof of loss or benefit coverage from employer
Become eligible for Medicaid or CHIP	Drop	Drop	Drop	Proof of eligibility or enrollment
Loss of eligibility for Medicaid or CHIP	Add	Add	Add	Proof of loss
Loss of other coverage¹	Add	Add	Add	Proof of loss

If you are enrolling based on one of these events, you will have the opportunity to change coverage levels or options.
Dropping child coverage is permitted if you (the associate) drops coverage.
Change must be consistent with change made under spouse’s/DP’s plan.

How To Make Changes

1

Log in to the Benefitfocus portal

After you log in to the Benefitfocus portal, click on “Edit Your Benefits.” Then follow the instructions to make a change outside of Open Enrollment.
2

Provide documentation within 31 days of the change

You’ll need to upload supporting documentation in the Benefitfocus portal. Eligibility requirements must be met and proof provided before coverage begins.

Required Documentation

When making changes to your coverage, you’ll need to provide documentation for verification. What you’ll need to provide depends on the change you’re making. For example, if you’re adding or removing dependents, you’ll need to provide a marriage license, birth certificate, adoption paperwork or divorce decree. If you’re covering your domestic partner, you’ll also need to include the Declaration of Domestic Partnership Form.

You can provide documentation on the Benefitfocus portal, or you can upload it using the Benefitfocus mobile app (company code: aeobenefits).

Enrolling Newborns and Other Children

You have up to 31 days after the birth, placement for adoption, adoption of your child(ren) or appointment as legal guardian to add your child(ren) to your medical plan. If you don’t enroll your newly acquired child(ren) within this time period, you won’t be able to enroll them for coverage until the next Open Enrollment.

If You Leave AEO

Some benefits coverage will end on the date you terminate employment or are no longer eligible. This includes Basic and Supplemental Life and AD&D, Short-Term Disability, Long-Term Disability and FSA coverage.

All other benefits end on the last day of the month after your employment ends or you’re no longer eligible.

You may be able to convert your Supplemental Life and AD&D to an individual policy. Contact Aflac directly at 844-440-1063.

Questions?

benefits@ae.com

724-779-5678

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