Princeton provides basic life and accidental death & dismemberment insurance (AD&D) as well as business travel accident (BTA) insurance. Options to purchase additional supplemental life, spousal life, and child life insurances are also available.

Features

• Provided through The Hartford (except business travel accident)
• Basic, AD&D, and BTA coverage effective upon date of hire at no cost to you
• Supplemental coverage up to three times base salary or $500,000, whichever is less; elect without evidence of insurability when hired or newly eligible
• Supplemental coverage effective first of the month coincident with or next following date of hire

Rules

• Life insurance coverage terminates the day employment ends at Princeton. The Hartford offers the opportunity to port or covert basic term and/or supplemental life insurance coverage to an individual policy within 31 days of termination. Rates for portability and conversion are higher than active rates. The Hartford will automatically send a notice to the home address on file. Call The Hartford at (877) 778-1383 for additional information.
• A reduction of benefits begins at age 60 per the Benefits Reduction Table (see below). This does not pertain to spousal life insurance.
• The percentage of coverage in effect is recalculated as of the pay period end date in which a birthday occurs.
• Life insurance beneficiaries can be reviewed and modified at any time through HR Self Service.
• Employees on long term disability leave cannot increase supplemental life insurance prior to returning to active status. 

Benefits Reduction Table

Coverage Percentage by Age

Eligibility

• All benefits-eligible employees with the exception of Visiting Fellows.

Deadlines and Application Process

• New hires have 31 days from date of hire to elect coverage up to three times base salary or a maximum life insurance amount of $500,000 without providing Evidence of Insurability (EOI). Any election above that and all increases in supplemental life insurance require EOI (EOI forms can be found on the Related Documents section). Once approved, the employees make the election  through HR Self Service.
• At any time with approval from The Hartford, upon submitting an Evidence of Insurability (EOI) Form.
• The Benefits Team must complete a section of the EOI form; send an email to [email protected] for assistance with completing the form. 

Basic Life Insurance

Princeton University provides basic term life insurance coverage, until age 60, equal to one times an employee’s annual base salary, rounded up to the next $1,000, up to a maximum of $500,000. For example, for an annual base salary of $40,500, the term life insurance benefit is $41,000. Life insurance coverage increases automatically with salary increases. 

The full death benefit equals one times the annual base salary of the insured to age 60. After age 60, the benefit is reduced per the Benefits Reduction Table.

Accidental Death & Dismemberment Insurance

Princeton provides insurance for Accidental Death and Dismemberment and Business Travel Accident Insurance. 

Accidental Death & Dismemberment Insurance

Under the Accidental Death and Dismemberment Insurance Plan, additional benefits are payable to the beneficiary of an employee who dies in an accident or who sustains the loss of limb or eyesight.

The full death benefit equals one times the annual base salary of the insured to age 60. After age 60, the benefit is reduced per the Benefits Reduction Table. The maximum benefit payable is $500,000.

Business Travel Accident Insurance

Should a faculty or staff member die as a result of an accident while on authorized University business, additional benefits are payable under the University’s Business Travel Accident Insurance Plan.

The amount of business travel accident Insurance equals five times the basic annual earnings up to a maximum of $500,000. Under this plan, a reduction of benefits begins at age 60 per the Benefits Reduction Table.  

Voluntary Supplemental Life Insurance

Princeton’s Supplemental Life Insurance Plan provides the option to purchase additional life insurance to supplement the basic term life Insurance provided by the University.

Employees may elect up to six and one-half times the annual base salary in supplemental life insurance to a maximum volume of $1.5 million. This plan provides term life insurance in a lump sum benefit equal to one times to a maximum of six and one-half times the employee’s annual base salary (rounded to the next highest thousand). The total combined basic life and supplemental life insurance maximum volume is $2 million.

The Supplemental Life Insurance Plan has the same benefit reduction schedule utilized with the Basic Life Insurance Plan for covered employees age 60 and older, per the Benefits Reduction Table. If, due to the reduction of insurance, the current amount of supplemental life insurance is further reduced, The Hartford will allow conversion of the amount of coverage lost to a whole life policy.

The monthly supplemental life insurance rates are as follows based on age; rates are per thousand:

Spousal Voluntary Life Insurance

Faculty and staff members enrolled in the Supplemental Life Insurance Plan can participate in the Spousal Voluntary Life Insurance Plan. 

Spousal insurance can be elected in increments of $10,000, $25,000, or $50,000. If the amount elected for spousal life insurance exceeds the amount of employee supplemental life insurance, the spousal life insurance will be incrementally decreased. For example, if the value of employee supplemental life insurance is $40,000, the highest value that may be elected for spousal life insurance is $25,000.

If both spouses are benefits-eligible employees of Princeton University and are covered under the Supplemental Life Insurance Plan, spousal voluntary life insurance cannot be elected. According to The Hartford’s standard practice, an individual is covered as either an employee or a dependent, but not both. If, at the time of a claim, duplicate coverage exists, The Hartford would pay only one benefit. 

The monthly spousal life insurance rates are as follows based on age; rates are per thousand:

Child Voluntary Life Insurance

Faculty and staff members enrolled in the Supplemental Life Insurance Plan can elect to participate in our Child Voluntary Life Insurance Plan. Eligible dependent children can be covered at $5,000 or $10,000 in child life insurance. Children are eligible for coverage through the end of the year in which they obtain age 26. 

The cost is $.79/month for $10,000 or $.40/month for $5,000, per family unit.

All dependent children must be covered for the same amount of life insurance — either $5,000 or $10,000. For example, if an employee with three children elects $10,000 of coverage, the monthly cost is $.79 for all three children.

If both parents are employees of Princeton University and eligible for benefits, only one parent may cover the child(ren). If, at the time of a claim, duplicate coverage existed, The Hartford would pay only one benefit.