By Patty Cruz, Army Survivor Benefit Plan, Program Manager

If you are reading this, you are probably thinking about life after your service in uniform. It is both exciting and scary. This big step requires a lot of decisions that you may not be prepared to make…yet. But don’t worry. You have many resources out there that will provide you with the information you need to make that educated decision. But the other part of that decision is having the hard conversations. You can get all the facts but at the end of the day, unless you understand what your goals are and what your Family needs, the facts are not enough to make that decision. The facts about benefits are the same for everyone but how that applies to a Soldier and their Family is different.

Let’s start with this fact…You will die one day. You don’t know when or how but it will happen.

Let that sink in for a minute.

The only thing you can do is to plan for what will happen to those you leave behind. This means that you will need to have the difficult conversations. You might not be ready to have these conversations but if you are planning your retirement or if you are nearing receipt of your Notification of Eligibility for Non-regular Retired Pay, (commonly referred to as the 20 year letter) the time is now. Why you ask? Because you will need to decide whether the Survivor Benefit Plan (SBP) or the Reserve Component Survivor Benefit Plan (RCSBP) will be part of your estate planning.

Here are a few considerations as you start these conversations:

1. What’s the likelihood that my spouse will outlive me and for how long? Go to the SBP Probability Tool to get an idea.
2. What does “taking care of my Family after I die” mean to me and my Family? See some examples below:
   • Allow my Family to maintain it’s current way of living
   • Get my kids through college
   • Allow my Family to live comfortably but will be at a different level than they are used to
   • I don’t have anyone that I need to take care of after I die
3. Do we have enough in assets to cover the Family expenses if the income I bring in goes away (salary, retired pay, VA disability compensation, etc.)? If not, how do we cover the gap? Is it with SBP/RCSBP, life insurance, or both? Go to FINRED's Estate Planning information to help you get started and check out the SBP Financial Analysis Tools.

Remember, you have a Retirement Services Officer and Personal Financial Counselors that can assist you with getting the facts. Contact them early and as often as you need.