Establishing a domestic partnership

You have 31 days from the date your partner first meets the eligibility requirements to add your partner to your health coverage or enroll your partner in life insurance. Depending on your circumstances, your partner may meet the eligibility requirements, and the 31-day window for making benefits changes may begin, when (for example):

• Your partnership is registered with the State of California or other jurisdiction
• You and your partner begin to share a common residence
• You and your partner become financially interdependent (e.g., purchase a car or home together)

While no documentation of eligibility is required to enroll and start coverage, you will receive a Family Member Eligibility Verification packet which will require you to provide proof of your partnership in order to continue the coverage. If you do not provide the proof requested, your partner and your partner’s eligible dependents, if applicable, will be disenrolled.

Remember, if your partner also works at UC, you can be covered under your UC benefits or your partner’s, but not both. If you decide to cover both of you under your benefits, be sure your partner disenrolls from his/her benefits.

If you drop your UC medical coverage to go on your partner’s plan and your partner loses his or her job, you can re-enroll in UC coverage within 31 days of losing your partner’s coverage.

If you use UCPath to manage your benefits, you can make this change through your online account. Retirees use the UBEN100 form PDF to enroll.

There are several ways to establish your domestic partnership for UCRP (any single method is sufficient):

• Registration of your domestic partnership with the State of California;
• Registration of your union, other than marriage, in another jurisdiction that is substantially equivalent to a California domestic partnership; or
• Sign and file a UC Declaration of Domestic Partnership (UBEN 250 PDF) with UC Human Resources Records Management (P.O. Box 24570, Oakland, CA 94623-1570), and provide requested supporting documentation. Please note that both the UCRP member and the domestic partner must sign the UBEN 250 form. If both you and your domestic partner are employees eligible for UCRP, you must each submit separate UBEN 250 forms, signed by both partners.
• Enroll your domestic partner in medical, dental and/or vision benefits, and successfully complete the eligibility verification process. (Note that enrolling your partner in benefits that do not require eligibility verification will not establish your partner as your survivor for UCRP benefits.)

If you and your partner are both UC employees — enrolling your partner as an eligible family member for UC health benefits establishes your partner as your survivor for UCRP benefits, subject to additional eligibility requirements. Your partner must actively designate you as their domestic partner by one of the three methods described above.

While establishing your partnership for UCRP benefits can be done at any time, it is very important to know that if you pass away before doing so, your partner cannot be considered for UCRP benefits.  

Some UCRP survivor and death benefits, including preretirement survivor benefits and post-retirement survivor benefits, require an established domestic partnership of at least one year. However, there is no one-year partnership requirement for benefits paid to your domestic partner if you die while eligible to retire, as long as the partnership has been established through one of the above methods.

(Please note that if you are eligible for the UC Retirement Choice Program and elect Savings Choice, it does not include UCRP survivor or death benefits, so it is not necessary to establish your partnership with UC. However, the vested balance of your Savings Choice account can be left to your beneficiaries, as explained in #5.)