TSP board issues revised regulations

The Thrift Savings Plan board Wednesday revised regulations affecting account withdrawals, death benefits, power-of-attorney issues and loan policies.

The Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board, which administers the government's 401(k)-style investment program, published the TSP revisions in the June 9 Federal Register.

The changes are final rules and take effect July 9.

In summary, the changes are:

• If a retired federal employee fails to begin withdrawing money from his or her TSP account before April 1 of the year following the year in which the retiree turns 70 1/2 (or April 1 of the year after retirement if the retiree is older than 70), all the money in the account will be transferred to the G Fund. Once all the money is moved into the G Fund, the retiree will be contacted by the TSP board. If the retiree doesn't respond within 90 days, the account will be shut down and earn nothing until the retiree reclaims the acount.
• When the TSP board receives written notice of a participant's death, all the money invested in other funds will be shifted into the G Fund until the account is paid out to a beneficiary.
• TSP participants whose loans were closed because of military-related absence from civilian employment can now reinstate the loans when they return from the absence.
• The TSP board must receive a power-of-attorney notice from a participant if the participant wants someone else to perform administrative TSP duties on his or her behalf. Without such a notice, only the participant can perform TSP transactions.