Does a Spouse Get Military Retirement After Death?

When a military retiree dies, their retired pay stops — it is a personal entitlement and does not transfer to a spouse. What a spouse usually does get is a separate monthly annuity through the Survivor Benefit Plan (SBP), which pays 55 percent of the base amount the retiree elected at retirement. So the honest answer to whether a spouse gets military retirement after death is: not the retirement itself, but in most cases a lifetime SBP annuity that stands in for a large share of it. Because married service members are automatically enrolled in SBP at retirement unless they opt out with the spouse’s written consent, most surviving spouses are already covered even if no one in the family remembers filling out a form.¹

What the SBP Annuity Actually Pays

The Survivor Benefit Plan is an annuity program run by the Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS) under 10 U.S.C. §§ 1447–1455.² A surviving spouse receives 55 percent of the “base amount” the retiree elected.³ That base amount can range from $300 up to full retired pay.⁴

A quick example. If the retiree elected a $2,000 base amount, the spouse’s monthly annuity is $1,100. If the retiree was enrolled at the maximum with $3,000 in full retired pay as the base, the annuity is $1,650 a month.

Because enrollment at retirement defaults to the maximum for married members, and because reducing or declining coverage requires the spouse’s written consent, the practical result for most families is coverage at full retired pay.¹ If you never signed paperwork agreeing to less, you are almost certainly the beneficiary at the top level.

Who Qualifies as a Surviving Spouse

Two questions decide eligibility: how long you were married, and whether you have since remarried.

On marriage length: if you were already married to the member when they became eligible for retired pay, no minimum marriage duration applies. If the marriage happened after retirement eligibility, you must have been married for at least one continuous year before the retiree’s death, or be the parent of a child born of that marriage.⁵

On remarriage: if you remarry before age 55, the annuity is suspended starting the first day of the month you remarry.⁶ If that later marriage ends by death, divorce, or annulment, payments restart the first day of the month it ends.⁷ Remarrying at 55 or older has no effect on the annuity.

The Final Month of Retired Pay

Retired pay is prorated for the month of death. That final amount is called Arrears of Pay (AOP), and it is paid as a one-time lump sum to a designated beneficiary or to the next eligible person under the DFAS order of precedence.⁸ AOP is usually less than a full month’s pay, and it is claimed by submitting SF 1174 with a death certificate showing the cause of death.⁹ It is a separate claim from the SBP annuity.

VA Dependency and Indemnity Compensation on Top of SBP

If the retiree’s death was connected to military service, or the retiree had certain VA disability ratings, the surviving spouse may also qualify for Dependency and Indemnity Compensation (DIC) from the VA. The 2026 base DIC rate for a surviving spouse is $1,699.36 per month, and DIC is tax-free.¹⁰

DIC used to reduce SBP dollar for dollar, which wiped out much of the SBP benefit for survivors who qualified for both. That offset was fully eliminated on January 1, 2023. A surviving spouse can now collect full SBP and full DIC at the same time.¹⁰ If service connection is even plausible, filing a DIC claim alongside the SBP claim is worth doing.

How to Report the Death and Start Payments

First, notify DFAS. The fastest route is the askDFAS Notification of Death form online, available around the clock. You can also call the DFAS Customer Care Center at 1-800-321-1080, Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. ET.¹¹ Have the retiree’s full name, Social Security number, date of death, cause of death, and marital status ready. A spouse should also have the date of marriage.

Then gather your documents:

A certified death certificate that states the cause or manner of death. DFAS will not pay without it. Certified copies typically cost $15 to $25 from state or county vital records, and it is worth ordering several because other agencies will want originals too.¹¹
SF 1174 to claim the one-time AOP payment. DFAS offers an online wizard that walks through it.⁹
DD Form 2656-7 to establish the SBP annuity for a surviving spouse, eligible former spouse, or child.¹²
Direct deposit authorization. A DFAS-CL Form 1059 goes with the SF 1174, and a separate direct deposit form may be required for the ongoing annuity.

Submit through the askDFAS online upload tool at dfas.mil, or by fax or mail. The AOP claim and the SBP annuity claim go to separate DFAS offices, so follow the addresses on the DFAS checklist for surviving family members.¹³

DFAS aims to issue the first SBP annuity payment within 60 days of receiving the DD Form 2656-7 and supporting documents. More complex cases can take 90 days or longer.¹⁴ Once payments start, a surviving spouse annuitant between ages 14 and 55 must return an annual Survivor Benefit Plan–Marriage Status Update (SBP-MSU) to keep receiving payments.¹⁵

What If the Retiree Wasn’t Enrolled in SBP

Occasionally a surviving spouse learns that the retiree was not enrolled in SBP even though they meant to be, usually because paperwork was lost or processed incorrectly. In that situation, the spouse can apply to the Board for Correction of Military Records for the retiree’s branch, asking that the record be corrected to reflect the intended enrollment. The application uses DD Form 149 with any supporting documentation of the error. An initial response on whether the case is accepted typically arrives in about two months.

Taxes and Yearly Increases

SBP annuity payments are generally subject to federal income tax and may be taxed by your state. DFAS issues a 1099-R each year. DIC payments from the VA are tax-free.

SBP payments rise each year through cost-of-living adjustments tied to the Consumer Price Index, matching the COLA applied to military retired pay. The 2026 COLA was 2.8 percent, applied to the January 2, 2026 payment.¹⁶ Over a long retirement, those annual bumps are what keep the annuity worth roughly what it was on day one.

1
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 10 USC 1448 – Application of Plan
2
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 10 USC Subtitle A, Part II, Chapter 73, Subchapter II – Survivor Benefit Plan
3
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 10 USC 1451 – Amount of Annuity
4
Military Compensation and Financial Readiness. Survivor Benefit Program Spouse Coverage
5
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 10 USC 1447 – Definitions
6
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 10 USC 1450 – Payment of Annuity Beneficiaries
7
Defense Finance and Accounting Service. How Remarriage Before Age 55 Affects SBP Eligibility
8
Defense Finance and Accounting Service. Order of Precedence for Payment of Deceased Retirees
9
Defense Finance and Accounting Service. How to Claim Retiree AOP Using the SF1174
10
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Current DIC Rates for Spouses and Dependents
11
Defense Finance and Accounting Service. Report a Retiree’s Death
12
Defense Finance and Accounting Service. How To Checklist DD2656-7
13
Defense Finance and Accounting Service. DFAS When Military Retiree Dies Checklist
14
Defense Finance and Accounting Service. Retired and Annuitant Pay Processing – How Long Does It Take
15
Defense Finance and Accounting Service. Simplifying Eligibility Verifications
16
Defense Finance and Accounting Service. COLA for Military Retirees and SBP Annuitants