How marriage or divorce can have an impact on your survivor benefits under the CSRS and FERS

Marital affairs should be confidential; however, with survivor benefits, the government needs to know about the state of your relationship, whether married, separated, or divorced.

Your survivor benefits under (CSRS) and (FERS)

The table below outlines the survivor benefits working mode under the Civil Service Retirement System and Federal Employees Retirement System.

	FERS	CSRS
Partial survivor benefit	25% of the (gross) annuity	55 percent of your annuity portion (minimum of $22.00)
Amount of partial-survivor benefits	5% of annuity price	2.5 percent of the initial $3600 ($90 per year) and 10 percent of your CSRS annuity defined portion (minus $3600)
Full survivor benefit	50% of the (gross) annuity	55 percent of the (gross) annuity
Full survivor benefit amount	10% of annuity price	2.5 percent of the first $3600 ($90/yr.) + 10 percent of CSRS annuity (minus$3600)

Influence of Marriage on Your Survivor Benefits

It would be best to decide as a federal government employee when you are about to retire and claim your benefits. You must decide either the full survivor or partial benefits. You can also waive your entire survivor annuity. Your spouse must approve and sign the waiver in your application form for retirement to waive or decrease benefits. Once you have done this and received your payment for the first month from CSRS or FERS, your option cannot be reversed, except if you end your marriage by divorce, annulment, or death. 

What will happen if you, as a federal employee, die first?

The Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) and Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS) will stop reducing survivor benefits from your account. Also, the reduction made before your death will not be paid back.

If you get married after retirement  

Your survivor benefits may be included in your pension income as a federal retiree; suppose you made the change within two years after marriage? This will lead to two decreases in your pension income. The first decrease is for the payment of survivor benefits. In contrast, the second decrease is below 5% of your unreduced annuity cost. Even if your marriage ends with your annuitant, the annuity will still be permanent.

What happens if you get married back to your spouse after your retirement?

Suppose you and your spouse decide to give up survivor benefits and later divorce after your retirement. Somehow, after the divorce, both of you choose to get back again; you cannot add more than the selected survivor benefits you have chosen during your retirement.

If you, as a federal government retiree, divorce after your retirement

Your ex-spouse is qualified to receive the FERS or CSRS survivor benefits. Still, they need a relevant court order stating that it may only be for your selected survivor benefit option during retirement. But if the benefits were sacrificed when you are married, they cannot be included after your divorce.

What happens if you get divorced when you are still in government service?

Don’t be surprised; your ex-spouse is still eligible for the CSRS or FERS survivor benefit. However, you can only revise your plan before you retire or die through a court order. In addition, your ex-spouse’s survivor benefit may stop if they are late or remarried before age 55. However, suppose your marriage to them exists for thirty years or beyond. In that case, it does not matter if they remarry before they are 55 years and are entitled to your survivor benefits. 

Contact Information:
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 6122163911

Bio:
Mickey Elfenbein specializes in working with Federal Employees relative to their retirement benefit plans, FEGLI, TSP, Social Security and Medicare, issues and solutions. Mr. Elfenbein’s mission is to help federal employees to understand their benefits, and to maximize their financial retirements while minimizing risk. Many of the federal benefit programs in place are complicated to understand and go through numerous revisions. It is Mr. Elfenbein’s job to be an expert on the various programs and to stay on top of changes.

Mickey enjoys in providing an individualized and complimentary retirement analysis for federal employees.

He has over 30 years of senior level experience in a variety of public and private enterprises, understands the needs of federal employees, and has expertise built on many years of high-level experience.