A federal employee in San Antonio, Florida can leave four different stacks of money to four different people without meaning to. The TSP designation, the FEGLI designation, the FERS survivor election, and the will do not share an office, and they do not rewrite each other. Estate planning here is the living work of lining those pieces up before anyone has to file a claim.
This is San Antonio in East Pasco, down the road from Dade City and Shady Hills. It is not the Texas city that shares the name. The household on a quiet street here is usually already in the decumulation years: a FERS annuity in pay or close to it, a TSP still sitting at the plan, and a will that may have been signed in another state before the move.
Why TSP, FEGLI, and a will can name different people
A beneficiary designation on a federal account outranks what a Florida will says about that same account. The will can be current, notarized, and sitting in a Dade City attorney’s file. It still does not move FEGLI, the TSP, unpaid compensation, or the FERS lump-sum credit by itself. Each of those has its own writing, its own office, and its own order of precedence if no valid designation is on file. The four death-benefit paths walk through that order. This page is about the living mismatch that creates the problem.
FEGLI is the clearest example. The statute pays first to the beneficiary named in a signed and witnessed writing received before death in the employing office. A designation, change, or cancellation of beneficiary in a will or other document that was not executed and filed that way has no force or effect. The regulation repeats the same rule: a will that is not witnessed and filed as required has no legal effect on those benefits. Two witnesses have to sign, a witness cannot be named as a beneficiary, and only the insured can file it. While you are still employed, the employing office has to receive it. After retirement, that office is OPM.
The TSP is a separate designation under separate authority. It does not ride along on the FEGLI form, and it does not follow the will. The TSP beneficiary rules are their own subject. What matters for a San Antonio household is the split: a spouse on the TSP, a child on FEGLI, and a sibling in the will is a complete plan on paper and a fight in practice.
Unpaid compensation, the last paycheck and whatever else is due at death, files with the employing agency. The first rung is a writing received in that agency before death. The statute does not use the “signed and witnessed” language that FEGLI and the FERS lump-sum credit use. That contrast is the fact. The FERS lump-sum credit, if it is payable, files with OPM: a signed and witnessed writing received in the Office before death. Same career. Three offices.
| Piece | Where the writing has to land | What a Florida will does |
|---|---|---|
| TSP | Its own designation, under its own authority | It does not rewrite the TSP |
| FEGLI | Employing office while working, OPM after retirement | A will not filed as the designation has no force |
| Unpaid compensation | The employing agency | First in line is a writing received there before death |
| FERS lump-sum credit | OPM | A signed and witnessed writing has to reach OPM before death |
A court order can override a FEGLI designation if a certified copy is received in the right office before death. For an employee that office is the employing agency. For an annuitant it is OPM. That is the federal route after a divorce. A Florida divorce does not, by itself, wipe the FEGLI designation. The insured can change a beneficiary at any time without the knowledge or consent of the previous one, and that right cannot be waived. The court-order rule still sits next to it. Whether any particular decree qualifies is a question for the household’s own attorney, not a matching brand.
Survivor elections that lock in while you are alive
A FERS survivor election is made while both people are living. It is not a beneficiary form, and it is not a will clause. It is a choice about the pension itself: what the surviving spouse keeps receiving after the retiree dies. The mechanics, the percentages, and the eligibility tests belong on the FERS survivor benefit page and on OPM’s own materials. The coordination point is simpler. That election, the TSP designation, and FEGLI can each point at a different person, and none of them updates when you sign a new will.
East Pasco households feel this because so many of them are already in pay. A San Antonio couple with a FERS annuity starting, a TSP still at the plan, and a will signed up north before the move can look organized. The survivor election may still name a former spouse. The TSP may still name a parent who has died. FEGLI may still name a sibling. The new will names the current spouse. Each office will follow its own paper.
Required withdrawals add a second clock. The IRS generally requires withdrawals from an IRA, SIMPLE IRA, SEP IRA, or retirement plan account when you reach age 73. The required beginning date for IRAs is April 1 of the year following the calendar year you reach 73. Money that stays in the account after that still passes by the designation on the account, not by the will. Roth IRAs are different on this point: you can leave amounts in a Roth IRA as long as you live, and you are not required to take withdrawals from a Roth IRA while the owner is alive. A traditional TSP balance does not get that pass just because a Roth IRA sits next to it.
Florida has no state individual income tax, so the federal bracket on inherited traditional retirement money carries more weight here than it does for a household that moved from a state with its own income tax on top. What to do with that money, and whether a trust belongs on any designation, is a conversation with a licensed advisor and with the household’s own CPA and attorney. This brand does not draft documents and does not give tax or legal advice.
What coordination looks like in East Pasco
Coordination in San Antonio, Dade City, Shady Hills, and Zephyrhills is a folder problem, not a product problem. The household sits down with the actual designations, the FERS election confirmation, and the will, and reads who is named on each one. The advisors we match you with do that estate planning coordination with the household’s own attorney. They do not replace the attorney. They do not file the federal forms. They make the map so the attorney is not drafting in the dark.
A typical East Pasco federal file has a house that will follow Florida documents, retirement money that will follow designations, and a pension election that already locked in a survivor path. Those three paths do not merge because the family lives on the same street. A Shady Hills household that updated the will after a second marriage and never touched FEGLI has not updated the life insurance. A Dade City household that rolled some money to an IRA and left some in the TSP now has two retirement designations to keep in agreement. Tax planning coordination matters on the IRA side because Florida will not layer a state tax on the distribution. The federal return still will.
Fiduciary advisor matching is how this brand actually enters the picture. Wesley Chapel Wealth Pro connects Pasco County households with independent, licensed financial planners. It is not a law firm, a CPA firm, or a registered investment adviser. It manages no money and sells no product. The planner who sits with the San Antonio household walks the designations against the will, then the household’s attorney writes whatever documents belong on the Florida side. Before anything is shared, the household can check the planner’s public record at BrokerCheck and, for a CFP professional, at the CFP Board verification page.
Local financial planning in San Antonio is built for this corridor’s retiree-heavy questions: RMD timing, Medicare windows, long-term care, and getting an estate to match the federal career that funded it. Wesley Chapel’s younger households call about a job change and an old 401(k). Temple Terrace calls about an FRS pension next to a 403(b). San Antonio calls because the federal stack and the Florida documents have drifted apart.
A beneficiary designation that overrides a will is not a Florida quirk. It is how these accounts work. The useful move is to treat the designations as the real estate plan for that money, and to treat the will as the plan for what those designations do not cover.
Frequently asked questions
Does a Florida will override a TSP or FEGLI designation?
No. A beneficiary designation on those accounts outranks the will. FEGLI pays the person named in a signed and witnessed writing received before death in the employing office, or at OPM after retirement. A will that was not executed and filed that way has no force on FEGLI. The TSP is a separate designation under separate authority. Unpaid compensation and the FERS lump-sum credit have their own offices as well. The will still matters for assets that actually pass under it. It does not silently rewrite the federal stack.
How much does an estate planning lawyer cost in San Antonio, Florida?
This brand does not set attorney fees and does not publish a price for legal work. The household’s own attorney states the fee before any documents are drafted. What changes the number is the work itself: how many accounts sit outside the will, whether a trust is even on the table, and whether designations, a FERS election, and Florida documents have to be read against each other. A Pasco County cost walkthrough covers the shape of that conversation. A matching brand quoting a lawyer’s fee would be inventing one.
What retirement pieces does a federal employee in East Pasco usually have to line up?
The living file is usually a FERS annuity or an approaching FERS retirement, a TSP, FEGLI, unpaid compensation, and whatever IRAs were opened after a rollover or a spouse’s career. Each piece can name someone different. Retirement income planning is the income side of that file. The estate side is making sure the person who would live on the pension is not a stranger to the TSP and FEGLI pages. No fund, annuity contract, or custodian belongs in that conversation until a licensed advisor and the household’s own attorney are in it.
When to call us
A federal career with a TSP, FEGLI, a FERS election, and a Florida will is worth taking to a fiduciary advisor when those four documents have not been read against each other, especially after a move to San Antonio, a divorce, a death in the family, or a retirement that sent the FEGLI file from the old employing office to OPM. The advisors we match you with coordinate with the household’s own attorney. They do not draft the documents and they do not file the federal designations. Call us at (813) 680-3195.