Human Resources

If you regularly work 30 or more hours per week and meet eligibility requirements, you are covered for group term life insurance at one times your annual base salary (rounded to the nearest $1,000). Your enrolled spouse is covered for $2,000, and each of your enrolled eligible dependents over 6 months of age is covered for $1,000. Newborns up to age six months of age are covered for $100. Stillborn babies are covered for $100. The city of Houston pays 100 percent of the premium for your basic life insurance coverage. Children over 21 must be full-time students and dependent on you to be eligible for coverage. Dependents must be added in order to be covered.

Basic life insurance that exceeds $50,000 is taxed as imputed income.

You may apply for a life-insurance benefit of one, two, three, or four times your annual salary. Your spouse may be covered for 50 percent of your coverage, not to exceed $50,000. Your eligible children may be covered for 50 percent of your coverage not to exceed $10,000 per child. Stillborn babies are covered for 10 percent of the children’s benefit, up to $1,000. Children over 21 must be full-time students to be eligible for coverage.

Premiums for this coverage are based on your age, salary and coverage option. You will pay the total cost of your coverage and any enrolled dependent’s coverage. Only one dependent child premium is charged for coverage of one or more than one child. However, you must enroll each child.

You may elect up to three times your salary and cover your dependents for the corresponding amount(s) when you are first employed by the city of Houston without submitting evidence of insurability. If you request four times your salary, or if you wish to enroll for or increase your coverage after your initial employment date, you will be required to supply evidence of insurability for your self and any dependent for whom you are applying for coverage. The life insurance company reserves the right to approve or deny coverage, and coverage will not become effective until the life insurance company issues an approval for each applicant.

Total employee basic and voluntary life insurance coverage may not exceed $700,000.

NOTE: No person may be insured under the policy as both an employee and a dependent.
No person may be insured under the policy as both an employee and a retiree.
Life insurance is rounded to the nearest $1,000 with $500 being rounded up to the next $1,000.

Your beneficiary is the person or persons designated by you, in writing, on the appropriate beneficiary form(s). You may designate whomever you wish as beneficiaries. Careful consideration should be given to beneficiary designations to ensure that any proceeds will be paid to the person(s) you desire. Beneficiaries may be changed at any time. It is wise to review your beneficiary designations whenever you have a life-changing event such as marriage, divorce or the birth of a child. A life-insurance benefit will not be paid to an ex-spouse unless you designated your ex-spouse as your beneficiary after the divorce.

You are the beneficiary for all life-insurance coverage on your dependents.

Under both the basic and the voluntary life plans, accelerated death benefits are available for employees who are diagnosed with an illness that is expected to result in death within 12 months. Application for this benefit must be made while covered as an active employee. Receipt of accelerated death benefits can help an employee and his or her family manage expenses. The accelerated death benefit provision applies only to the employee. To be approved for an accelerated death benefit, an applicant must be diagnosed with a terminal illness and have a prognosis of death in 12 or fewer months. If approved, the employee may receive a benefit of 50 percent of the total amount of his/her coverage under these group plans. The minimum benefit is $10,000; the maximum benefit is $175,000.

Employees covered under the voluntary life insurance plan who are permanently and totally disabled may apply to have their voluntary life premiums waived. If approved, the disabled employee will continue to be covered at no cost until the disability ends, the death of the employee, retirement, or reaching 65, whichever occurs first.

If life-insurance coverage ends because you are no longer a city employee, or becuse a dependent lost eligibility, you may request a conversion policy for yourself and/or any covered dependents.

A conversion policy is issued without evidence of insurability. The amount of that policy willl not be more than the amount of coverage that was terminated. You or your dependent must apply for a conversion policy within 31 days after the end of active coverage. If your or a dependent's death occurs within the 31-day conversion period, the benefit would be paid as though a conversion had been effected. If your death occurs before you designate a new beneficiary, the benefit will be paid to your beneficiary of record at the time employment ended.