If You Terminate Employment

If you terminate employment with The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf  ®, your medical, dental and vision insurance coverage will remain in force until the end of the month in which your termination occurs.  For example, if you terminate employment as of March 2nd, these benefits will remain in force until March 31st.  Your basic life and AD&D insurance, voluntary life insurance and long term disability insurance coverage will end at the end of the month that you were actively at work.  If you participate in either of the Flexible Spending Accounts, you will not be eligible to make a claim for services received after your termination date. No employee or employer contributions will be made to your 401(k) plan after your termination date.

COBRA Coverage for Medical, Dental, Vision & Medical Flexible Spending Accounts (MFSA)
Under provisions of the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA), you may elect to temporarily continue coverage in The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf  ® sponsored medical, dental, vision and medical FSA plan, but only if you were enrolled in these plans at the time you terminated employment.

In general, COBRA allows you to continue coverage at your expense for 18 months beyond your termination date.  Shortly after your termination you will receive a COBRA election form directly from HealthComp Administrators, who The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf ® has chosen as its COBRA Administrator.  This election form will outline each benefit for which you are eligible to elect COBRA coverage and will also provide you with the cost of COBRA coverage for each benefit. 

Please note that HealthComp Administrators will send your COBRA election notice to your “address of record” at The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf ®.  If you do not receive your COBRA election notice within 15 days after your termination, please call Benny’s Café at (888) 873-8326.  A customer service representative will check your address of record and, if necessary, instruct HealthComp Administrators to re-send your packet to your current address.

Basic Life/AD&D Insurance and Voluntary Life (“VTL”) Insurance
You can convert your basic life insurance from a group term life policy to an individual whole life policy when you terminate employment.

When you terminate employment, there are two options available to you to retain your VTL insurance coverage through either a portability feature or a conversion feature.  There are technical differences between these two methods of retaining these policies post-employment. 
If you are interested in retaining your life insurance post-termination, call Benny’s Café  at (888) 873-8326.  A service representative can help explain the differences between portability and conversion and guide you through the process of either. 

Both forms are available below:

Base Life and AD&D Forms
Conversion Notice/Application
Conversion Kit

Supplemental Life Portability Forms
Portability Notice
Portability Application
Portability Kit


Long Term Disability (LTD) Insurance
Your LTD benefit ends on your date of termination.  You cannot continue this benefit through COBRA and you cannot convert it to an individual policy or continue it through a portability feature.

Dependent Care Flexible Spending Account (DFSA)
You cannot continue this benefit through COBRA.  However, you can continue to incur expenses until the end of the plan year in which you terminate. You can file claims during the plan year and up to ninety days following the end of the plan year but only up to the amount you contributed prior to termination.

401(k) Retirement Plan

After termination, you have several choices with respect to your 401(k) Plan. You can:

• Keep the balance in the plan, as long as your account balance is at least $5,000.  Your account will continue to earn investment gains or losses, and you will continue to defer income taxes on the value of the account. 
• Roll the account balance to an Individual Retirement Account (IRA).  You will continue to defer taxes on the value of the account and may be able to choose from a wider array of investments. 
• Roll your account balance into your new employer’s retirement plan.  You will continue to defer income taxes on the value of the account and will be able to consolidate your retirement funds, which may make it easier to manage.
• Take a distribution.  If you take a distribution, you have immediate access to your funds and can use them for a wide variety of current needs.  However, you will have to pay income taxes on the amount of the distribution.  If you are younger than 59 ½, you will also pay an extra 10% excise tax, in addition to income taxes, on any distribution you take.  Perhaps as importantly, if you take a distribution, the funds will not have an opportunity to continue growing on a tax-preferred basis.  This may result in your having inadequate funds available to you during retirement.

Please note: that if your 401(k) account balance is less than $5,000, you may not keep your balance in the plan after termination.  You must roll your account into a successor qualified plan or an IRA, or take it as a taxable distribution.