FERS Survivor Benefits Calculator

How this is calculated

A FERS spouse can be paid under either of two rules, and which one applies is decided by a single fact: whether the employee had retired. They are not variants of one benefit. They have different service tests, different formulas, and one of them has to be elected while the other cannot be refused.

If you die in service

5 U.S.C. § 8442(b) pays two separate things, on two separate tests:

• The basic employee death benefit — after 18 months of creditable civilian service. A one-off payment of “50 percent of the final annual rate of basic pay (or of the average pay, if higher)” plus “$15,000 as adjusted under section 8462(e)”. That $15,000 has been raised by every CSRS cost-of-living adjustment since 1987 and stands at $43,800.53 for deaths on or after December 1, 2025. Note that the salary comparison is a choice between two figures, not a sum of them.
• A monthly survivor annuity — after 10 years of total service. Half of the annuity the employee had earned at the date of death. The 10-year test counts military service for which a deposit has been paid; the 18-month test above counts civilian service only.

lump sum  = max(final salary, high-3) × 50% + $43,800.53
annuity   = high-3 × 1% × years × 50%

Three things about that second line are easy to get wrong, and this tool takes a position on each:

• The factor is 1%, never 1.1%. The enhanced rate in § 8415(i)(2)(A) is available only to an employee who “retires entitled to an annuity under section 8412”. An employee who dies has not retired, so an employee already past 62 with 20 years leaves their spouse a smaller annuity than the same career would have produced had they retired the day before. It is the one place on this site where staying at work costs the household money.
• There is no age reduction. Not because survivors are exempted, but because § 8415(h)(1) reduces only the annuity of someone “retiring under section 8412(g) or 8413(b)” — an MRA+10 or a deferred retirement. A death is neither. OPM’s handbook reaches the same place from the other direction: the annuity is computed “as if the employee retired optionally (with no age reduction) on the date of death”.
• Unused sick leave counts.§ 8415(m)(1)(A) credits it to an employee who retires on an immediate annuity “or who dies leaving a survivor or survivors entitled to annuity”. The same sentence bars it from “annuity eligibility”, so it raises the annuity without ever helping to reach the 10-year test.

If you die after retiring

Now nothing is automatic. § 8442(a)(1) pays a widow or widower “an annuity equal to 50 percent of an annuity computed under section 8415 … (or one-half thereof, if designated for this purpose under section 8419)” — and only if the election was made at retirement. There is no lump sum on this path at all.

The pairing of percentages is worth reading in the original, because the way it is usually summarised hides the mechanism. § 8419(a)(1) reduces “the annuity … or one-half of the annuity, if jointly designated…, by 10 percent”. There is no separate 25% benefit and no separate 5% cost written anywhere in the statute: the partial election runs the identical 10%-for-50% trade over half the annuity, which is what produces the familiar 5%-buys-25% figures. Both elections therefore cost exactly the same per dollar of survivor benefit, and choosing between them is a question of how much cover you want rather than which is better value.

One further asymmetry: the survivor’s share is taken from the annuity before the reduction that funds it, but after any age reduction. A retiree who left under MRA+10 passes their own permanent reduction on to their spouse.

The part that is not about money

Under 5 CFR 890.303(c), a deceased annuitant’s self plus one or self and family FEHB enrolment “is transferred automatically to his or her eligible survivor annuitant(s)”. A spouse who was not left a survivor annuity is not a survivor annuitant, so there is nothing for the enrolment to transfer to and no route back into the programme afterwards. For many households this, rather than the annuity itself, is what the election is buying — and it is why the partial election is worth knowing about: it is the cheapest entry price for lifetime coverage.

What this does not model

• Whether your spouse qualifies at all. A widow or widower must generally have been married to the employee for at least 9 months, unless the death was accidental or a child was born of the marriage. This tool assumes a qualifying marriage.
• Former spouses and court orders. A survivor annuity awarded to a former spouse by a court order comes off the top and limits what a current spouse can be given. Nothing here reconstructs that.
• Children’s annuities. Payable under § 8443, at rates OPM re-publishes each year — but under FERS they are offset by Social Security benefits payable on the same death, and in most cases the offset removes them entirely. Showing a figure that usually turns out to be zero would mislead more than it informs.
• Special provisions and disability retirement. Law enforcement, firefighter and air traffic controller service is computed on the enhanced formula — see the special provisions calculator. A survivor of a disability annuitant is paid a share of the § 8452 amount rather than the § 8415 one; see the disability retirement calculator.
• The deferred case.§ 8442(c) lets the survivor of someone who separated with title to a deferred annuity elect either an annuity or the lump-sum credit. That is a different election on a different timetable — see deferred vs postponed retirement.
• CSRS. A separate system with a different survivor formula: up to 55% of an elected dollar base, priced at 2.5% of the first $3,600 and 10% above it. The CSRS annuity calculator models it.
• Tax, insurance premiums and Social Security. Every figure is gross. The lump sum is taxable unless rolled over, and a surviving spouse may also be entitled to Social Security survivor benefits, which are not modelled here.

Sources

• 5 U.S.C. § 8442 — both rules in one section: the annuitant’s survivor annuity in subsection (a), the death-in-service lump sum and annuity in subsection (b).
• 5 U.S.C. § 8419 — the reduction that funds the election, and its termination on the spouse’s death or the dissolution of the marriage.
• 5 U.S.C. § 8415 — the computation the survivor’s share is taken from, including subsection (h)(1) on the age reduction, (i)(2) on the 1.1% factor, and (m)(1) on sick leave.
• OPM CSRS/FERS Handbook, Chapter 70 — Spouse Benefits, Death of an Employee (PDF) — the service tests in administrative detail, and the statement that the annuity is computed with no age reduction.
• OPM Benefits Administration Letter 26-101 (1 October 2025) (PDF) — the current value of the indexed $15,000: $43,800.53, for deaths on or after December 1, 2025.
• 5 CFR 890.303 — the automatic transfer of an FEHB enrolment to an eligible survivor annuitant, and what that word is doing in the sentence.

Last reviewed: August 2026