GovExec: “The Office of Personnel Management determines exactly how much each federal employee will get in retirement benefits when the time comes to leave federal service. But that process can take a long time. Currently fewer than 70 percent of new retirement claims received by OPM are processed in less than 60 days. And once your application has been processed, it’s too late to make sure you understand just how much money you’ll have in retirement. That’s why it’s important to get an estimate of your benefit long before you actually go out the door. You can get one from your agency, whether you’re under the Civil Service Retirement System or the Federal Employees Retirement System. I’m often asked to review a CSRS or FERS retirement estimate to see if I can detect anything that might be missing or subject to question before an employee moves forward with his or her plans for retirement.”