What is a Qualifying Life Event?
Outside of Open Enrollment, certain life events allow you to change your benefits during the calendar year.
A qualified family status change may be related to your marital status, number or status of dependents, employment status or work schedule, residence or work site, Medicare/Medicaid eligibility or a domestic relations order. These events may not apply to every benefit plan.
You can change your benefits to reflect a qualified family status change if you act within 30 days of the qualifying event.
Some examples of qualifying events include:
Get detailed information about how your benefits may be impacted and what actions to take.
Ineligible Dependents? Remember to Remove Them
It is important to remove any ineligible dependents from your coverage within 30 days of the loss of eligibility.
Who Qualifies as a Dependent?
- Spouse
- Other qualified adult (OQA)
- Married same-sex couples
- When two members of a household work at U-M or a family member has U-M benefits as a retiree
- Your child of your spouse or OQA’s child
- Child under legal guardianship
- Never married principally supported child
- Disabled child age 26 or older
- Survivors of deceased active benefits-eligible faculty and staff
- Survivors of deceased retired faculty and staff
View more information on the different types of qualifying dependents.
Make Sure to Update Your Beneficiary
It is important to review your beneficiary designations for life insurance and your retirement savings accounts and make updates as necessary whenever your circumstances change. Update your beneficiary when you experience a life event that changes your eligible dependents, or when there is a change affecting your named beneficiary.
