Q. I’m a 79-year-old single federal retiree in CSRS. If I marry a woman 10 years younger, what percentage of my retirement will she receive when I die? I also am a military retiree with Medicare and Tricare for Life, so I wouldn’t need the civilian health insurance. A. As a CSRS retiree, you could elect any amount of annuity for your spouse, from $1 a year to 55 percent of your annuity. To pay for it, there would be two reductions in your annuity. The first would be the standard reduction to provide for the survivor benefit. The second…
Browsing: survivor annuity
Q. I am a federal employee and have had Federal Employees Health Benefits for myself and my husband for 20+ years. My husband is retired military with Tricare for Life. I plan to retire on FERS and keep our FEHB for myself and my husband. If I choose to not have survivor benefits and I die before my husband, will he be allowed to keep the FEHB coverage since he receives a military retirement pension and has always had Tricare for Life through the military? In other words, can he keep FEHB and have the premiums taken out of his…
Q. Is the cost-of-living adjustment computation made before or after the survivor annuity reduction is made? If I retired with a $50,000 retirement, approximately $5,000 per year would be deducted. Would the increase be adjusted to the $50,000 amount or the $45,000 amount? A. Cost-of-living adjustments are only made to your base annuity, not the amount you would have received if you hadn’t elected a survivor annuity.
Q. My husband and I are both federal employees. I am CSRS, and he is FERS. His plan is to retire in December at age 62. My plan is to retire at age 57 in June. We both had planned on leaving the other with the maximum survivor benefit amount. However, I am rethinking this because part of my husband’s annuity will be made up of Social Security benefits. Will that affect our ability to get the maximum benefit of each other’s survivor annuity? Or will mine, his or both of ours be subject to the Social Security government pension…
Q. I expect to marry a woman from abroad about two years after I retire. Does our age difference factor into her spousal annuity? A. While her age doesn’t matter, when you marry and elect a survivor annuity does. If you marry before you retire, your annuity will be reduced to provide for that benefit (around 10 percent (CSRS) or exactly 10 percent (FERS)). If you marry after you retire and elect a survivor benefit, there will be two reductions in your own annuity: the standard reduction and a permanent actuarial reduction to pay the survivor benefit deposit. The deposit…
Q. I am a retired federal employee and receive a $5,300 monthly CSRS annuity. I do not qualify for Social Security. My wife gets $600 a month in SS benefits that she earned working. If I die, will her survivor benefit of $3,200 a month be reduced by the $600 a month she receives in SS? A. No, She’ll receive her earned Social Security benefit and her CSRS survivor annuity, with no reduction in either.
Q. I am a FERS employee and plan to retire at age 60 with more than 20 years’ service. I will have been enrolled in FEHB for more than five years and want to know: If I elect to not have a survivor on my annuity, will my spouse, who receives a monthly military retirement from the U.S. Navy and has Tricare for Life, be able to keep the FEHB after my death? A. No. Your spouse has to be both covered under the self and family option of your FEHB plan and receiving a survivor annuity. As a FERS…
Q. As a CSRS member, my husband has elected to receive reduced benefits to have me receive a survivor annuity if he predeceases me. I receive Social Security and will receive a small pension through TIAA-CREF when I reach age 68. How will my Social Security payment, which is $1,008 after taxes, be affected by my husband’s projected benefit of $6,000 per month? A. It won’t be affected.
Q. My 93-year-old father has been retired from the federal government since he was 62. My mother passed away 22 years ago. He wants to marry a very young woman so she can get his pension. I can’t imagine the government would allow this. He is adamant that she will receive his pension if he marries her. A. Yes, he can elect a survivor annuity for a new wife. However, he needs to keep two things in mind. First, she wouldn’t be entitled to anything unless the marriage lasted for nine months before he died. Second, the cost of such…
Q. My husband has been receiving federal retirement income each month. He passed away in July, and I have submitted the paperwork to receive a portion of his retirement. I also would like to have the medical insurance payment taken out each month so I can receive the insurance coverage. He has Blue Cross/Blue Shield federal employee coverage and, as his wife, I wish to continue the coverage for myself. I have tried to reach the Blue Cross office in Dallas, and all I get is a recording regarding various medical information and cannot get a customer representative to speak…