Life events that can affect your U-M benefits happen every day. Although updating your university information may not be the first thing on your mind, it's important to update qualified life events in U-M's benefits system within 30 days of their occurrence.
What is a Qualifying Life Event?
Specific life events allow you to change your benefits during the calendar year, even if it's outside U-M's Open Enrollment event in October.
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 all of your benefit plans.
You can change your benefits to reflect a qualified family status change if you act within 30 days of the qualifying event.
Examples of qualifying events include:
- Birth or adoption
- Death
- Marriage
- Divorce
- Job change
- Moving out of a managed care service area
View the Life Events web page for detailed information about how your benefits may be impacted and what actions to take.
Remove Ineligible Dependents
It's important to remove ineligible dependents from your benefits 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 the Eligible Dependents web page to learn more about the different types of qualifying dependents.
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.
Learn how to protect the people you love on the Your Beneficiary web page.