I thought I knew what to expect from the shift to post-employment benefits when I decided to retire, at age 66, near the end of 2022. After all, for almost 19 years at the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), my SHRM Online beat was almost exclusively employee benefits and compensation. I had also earned SHRM’s Total Rewards Specialty credential and the Certified Employee Benefit Specialist (CEBS) credential overseen by the International Foundation of Employee Benefits Plans.
Yet, I was repeatedly surprised by what I didn’t know as I began the transition from employee group coverage to government and private-insurance replacements—primarily Medicare but also “Medigap” and Part D prescription drug coverage—and to make decisions about other replacement benefits.
