The decision to retire was easy. Making the “right” decisions related to retirement was much more complicated than I ever dreamed. One issue was the paperwork. Friends related their experience and it became evident that if I filled out the paperwork correctly, the retirement process would go smoothly. So what was the “proper” way? Thanks to a recently retired friend, I used the services of “Federal TransFERS” to answer my questions. I am under CSRS with a spouse who retired under CSRS. There are differences for CSRS and FERS employees.
Federal TransFERS made sure I got the right set of forms and held my hand as I filled out the forms. They also let me know about the extra forms I would need to avoid the penalty for not registering for Part B Medicare if I chose to get Part B. They told me how to request a copy of my marriage certificate (which I did not realize I would need). They also made sure I did not complicate matters by including extraneous information (which actually slow the process for determining your full monthly retirement).
My decision to retire was the right decision and my decision to have professional help me with the process was also the right decision. I am a very satisfied customer. I will or my spouse will use their services again when one of us needs to make changes (we both elected the survivor benefit when we filled out our paperwork).