Federal Employee Death Benefits: FEGLI, Survivor Annuity, and TSP

Survivors of a federal employee can generally claim several federal employee death benefits at once: a lump-sum payout from Federal Employees’ Group Life Insurance (FEGLI), a monthly survivor annuity under CSRS or FERS (plus a one-time Basic Employee Death Benefit for FERS), workers’ compensation under FECA if the death was job-related, the balance of the Thrift Savings Plan account, the final paycheck and accrued leave, and continued health and dental coverage. Each program has its own form, its own office, and its own deadline, and missing one usually means losing it for good.

FEGLI Life Insurance

FEGLI is usually the fastest money to reach survivors because it pays a lump sum rather than an ongoing benefit that must be recertified. Coverage comes in two layers. Basic insurance, which every eligible employee carries automatically, equals annual pay rounded up to the next $1,000, plus $2,000, with a $10,000 floor. If the employee died before age 45, an Extra Benefit multiplier increases the payout at no extra cost: Basic doubles at age 35 and younger, then drops 10 percent a year until it disappears at 45.¹ A 40-year-old with $48,000 of Basic coverage would actually be insured for $72,000.

On top of Basic, the employee may have elected Optional coverage: Option A adds a flat $10,000; Option B adds one to five multiples of annual pay; Option C covers family members at $5,000 per spouse or $2,500 per child in multiples of one to five. Only coverages the employee was actively enrolled in at death pay out. The employing agency’s HR office can confirm what was in force.

Who Gets the Money

If the employee filed a Designation of Beneficiary (Standard Form 2823), proceeds go to whoever is named. Without a valid designation, federal law sets a fixed order: surviving spouse, then children (with a deceased child’s share going to that child’s descendants), then parents, then the estate’s executor or administrator, then next of kin under the law of the employee’s home state.² A beneficiary named in a will has no effect on FEGLI. The designation must be on file with the employing office.

How to Claim

Submit Form FE-6 with a certified copy of the death certificate directly to the Office of Federal Employees’ Group Life Insurance (OFEGLI). Not OPM. Not the agency.³ The proceeds themselves are not taxable to the beneficiary, though a small amount of interest accruing between the date of death and payment is reportable.⁴

CSRS Survivor Annuity

A surviving spouse qualifies for a monthly CSRS annuity if the employee had at least 18 months of creditable civilian service.⁵ The amount is 55 percent of the retirement benefit the employee would have received had they retired on disability the day they died. A guaranteed minimum protects short-service survivors: the base cannot be less than the smaller of 40 percent of the employee’s high-three average salary or the annuity the employee would have earned if service were extended to age 60.⁶ The application is Standard Form 2800.

FERS Survivor Benefits

FERS provides two separate benefits, and qualifying for one does not require qualifying for the other.

The Basic Employee Death Benefit (BEDB) is a one-time lump sum, payable if the employee had at least 18 months of creditable civilian service. It equals 50 percent of the employee’s final salary (or average salary, if higher) plus an inflation-adjusted fixed amount. For deaths after December 1, 2025, that fixed amount is $43,800.53.⁷ For an employee earning $90,000, the BEDB works out to roughly $88,800.

A monthly survivor annuity requires at least 10 years of creditable service, including 18 months of civilian service. It equals 50 percent of the retirement benefit the employee had accrued at the time of death.⁸ The application is Standard Form 3104.

If no survivor annuity is payable under either system, the survivor can instead take a lump-sum refund of the deceased employee’s retirement contributions plus accrued interest.

Marriage, Children, and Former Spouses

Under both CSRS and FERS, the surviving spouse must have been married to the employee for at least nine months. That requirement is waived if the death was accidental or if the marriage produced a child, including one born after the death.⁹

Unmarried dependent children receive monthly annuity payments until they turn 18, marry, or die. Benefits can continue to age 22 if the child is a full-time student at a recognized school, and continue indefinitely for an unmarried child whose disability began before age 18.⁵

A former spouse can qualify only if a court order specifically awards a survivor annuity. OPM’s language requirements are strict: the order must expressly name the retirement system, expressly award a former spouse survivor annuity or direct the employee to elect one, and give OPM enough information to calculate the benefit without looking outside the order.¹⁰ An ERISA-style qualified domestic relations order does not work unless it references Part 838 of Title 5 of the Code of Federal Regulations. Vague instructions to “divide retirement benefits equitably” are not enough. Many former spouse claims fail here, so the drafting matters.

Death From a Work-Related Injury or Illness

If the death was connected to duty, survivors can claim compensation under the Federal Employees’ Compensation Act (FECA), administered by the Department of Labor. FECA is separate from retirement annuities, and both can sometimes be paid, though offsets may apply.

Monthly compensation is a percentage of the employee’s pay based on family structure. A surviving spouse with no children receives 50 percent. A surviving spouse with children receives 45 percent, plus 15 percent for each child, up to a combined 75 percent. Children alone (no surviving spouse) receive 40 percent for one child, plus 15 percent for each additional child, up to 75 percent total split equally.¹¹

FECA also pays a burial allowance of up to $800. If the employee died away from home while on duty or while receiving medical treatment, the government may cover embalming and transporting the body home.¹²

Survivors file Form CA-5 (spouse or children) or CA-5b (other dependents) with the Department of Labor’s Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs. The employing agency submits Form CA-6 with evidence linking the death to duty. The deadline is three years from the date of death, but if the employee had already filed a notice of injury for the same condition, that filing satisfies the clock. For a latent condition, the three years do not begin until survivors knew, or reasonably should have known, of the connection between the death and the employee’s work.¹³

Final Pay, Accrued Leave, and TSP

The employee’s final paycheck, unused annual leave, and any compensatory time go to the estate under a separate order of precedence: a beneficiary designated in writing with the agency, then surviving spouse, children, parents, the estate’s legal representative, and next of kin.¹⁴

Thrift Savings Plan money follows its own rules, independent of FEGLI and independent of the final-pay order. TSP beneficiary designations are now made online through the participant’s My Account portal; the old paper Form TSP-3 is obsolete.¹⁵ A will or court order cannot override a TSP designation.¹⁶ When the beneficiary is a spouse, TSP opens a beneficiary participant account in the spouse’s name, the money stays invested in the same funds, and the transfer is not a taxable event.¹⁷ Non-spouse beneficiaries face mandatory 20 percent federal withholding on the taxable portion and can roll the distribution only into an inherited IRA, not their own. If the beneficiary is an estate or other legal entity, withholding drops to 10 percent and no rollover is available.¹⁸ The TSP contacts beneficiaries directly once it is notified of the death.

Keeping Health and Dental Coverage

A surviving family member can stay on Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) coverage if the deceased employee was enrolled in a Self and Family plan and the survivor receives (or is elected to receive) a survivor annuity. Premiums come out of the annuity payment.¹⁹ Some FERS survivors who get the Basic Employee Death Benefit but no monthly annuity can keep FEHB by paying premiums directly to OPM. Surviving children can stay on a family FEHB enrollment until age 26, or beyond that if they have a qualifying disability that began before age 26. Survivors receiving an annuity can also continue or enroll in dental and vision coverage under FEDVIP.²⁰

How Remarriage Affects Survivor Benefits

Remarriage before age 55 generally ends a survivor annuity under both CSRS and FERS. The one exception: if the surviving spouse was married to the deceased employee for at least 30 years, the annuity continues regardless of remarriage age.²¹

If a current spouse’s annuity ends because of remarriage and the new marriage later dissolves through death, divorce, or annulment, the annuity can be restored, but the survivor must first repay any lump-sum retirement contribution refund received when the annuity terminated.²¹ A former spouse survivor annuity that ends on remarriage can never be restored.

FECA compensation follows a similar pattern. A surviving spouse who remarries before age 55 loses monthly benefits but receives a lump-sum settlement equal to 24 months of the compensation in effect at the time of remarriage.²² Divorce from that second marriage does not bring the monthly compensation back. FEHB coverage also ends on the last day of the month before a remarriage before age 55, again with the 30-year exception, and can be reinstated if the annuity is later reinstated.¹⁹

Taxes and Social Security

The tax treatment varies by benefit. FEGLI proceeds are not taxable to the beneficiary.⁴ CSRS and FERS survivor annuities are partly taxable: a portion of each payment is a tax-free return of the deceased employee’s contributions and the rest is ordinary income. Survivors with an annuity starting date after November 18, 1996, must use the IRS Simplified Method to calculate the tax-free share, and once the employee’s contributions have been fully recovered tax-free, later payments are fully taxable.²³ TSP distributions come with Form 1099-R; spouse beneficiaries who keep the money in a beneficiary participant account defer taxes until withdrawal.¹⁸

CSRS employees generally did not pay into Social Security, and the Government Pension Offset historically reduced Social Security spousal or survivor benefits paid to their families. The Social Security Fairness Act of 2023, signed on January 5, 2025, eliminated the GPO for benefits payable from January 2024 forward.²⁴ Survivors of CSRS employees who saw Social Security payments reduced or denied in the past should check whether they now qualify for the full amount. FERS employees pay Social Security taxes, so their survivors can claim regular Social Security survivor benefits without any federal-pension offset.

Where Each Claim Goes

Sending paperwork to the wrong office is the most common cause of delay. Each program has its own destination:

FEGLI life insurance: Form FE-6 to OFEGLI.
CSRS survivor annuity: Standard Form 2800 through the agency HR office to OPM.
FERS survivor benefits: Standard Form 3104 through the agency HR office to OPM.⁷
FECA death compensation: Form CA-5 or CA-5b to the Department of Labor’s Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs, within three years of death.
Final pay and accrued leave: handled by the employing agency under 5 U.S.C. 5582.
TSP: the plan contacts beneficiaries once notified of the death.

Every claim needs a certified copy of the death certificate. Retirement annuity applications also need the marriage certificate and birth certificates for dependent children. Order several certified copies of the death certificate at the start, since each program may want its own original, and a former spouse claiming a court-ordered annuity should include a certified copy of the order in the form OPM requires.

1
OPM.gov. FEGLI Program Booklet
2
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 5 USC 8705 – Death Claims; Order of Precedence; Escheat
3
Office of Personnel Management. FE-6 Claim for Death Benefits
4
U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Will My Beneficiary Have to Pay Income Tax on the FEGLI Benefits
5
U.S. Office of Personnel Management. CSRS Survivors
6
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 5 USC 8341 – Survivor Annuities
7
U.S. Office of Personnel Management. FERS Survivors
8
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 5 USC 8442 – Rights of a Widow or Widower
9
U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Survivor Benefits
10
eCFR. 5 CFR Part 838 – Court Orders Affecting Retirement Benefits
11
U.S. Department of Labor. Federal Employees’ Compensation Act
12
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 5 USC 8134 – Funeral Expenses; Transportation of Body
13
eCFR. 20 CFR 10.410 – Compensation in Case of Death
14
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 5 USC 5582 – Designation of Beneficiary; Order of Precedence
15
The Thrift Savings Plan (TSP). Attention: Obsolete Forms
16
The Thrift Savings Plan (TSP). Designating Beneficiaries
17
The Thrift Savings Plan (TSP). Beneficiary Distributions
18
Thrift Savings Plan. Changes to Tax Rules About TSP Payments
19
Office of Personnel Management (OPM). Information for Retirees and Survivor Annuitants – Federal Employees Health Benefits
20
U.S. Office of Personnel Management. FEDVIP Eligibility
21
U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Learn More About Survivor Benefits and Retirement
22
U.S. Department of Labor. Procedure Manual – Division of Federal Employees’ Compensation – FECA Part 2
23
Internal Revenue Service. Tax Guide to U.S. Civil Service Retirement Benefits
24
Social Security Administration. Will Social Security Reduce My Spouse’s Benefits if I Get a Government Pension Based on My Own Earnings