The SF 1152 designation of beneficiary is the one-page form federal civilian employees use to name who receives their unpaid pay, unused annual leave, and other final compensation if they die in service. You complete it in duplicate, sign it in front of two witnesses who are not named on the form, and file both copies with your agency’s human resources office; HR keeps the original and returns a date-stamped duplicate as your receipt. It has no effect on your FEGLI life insurance, your Thrift Savings Plan, or your CSRS or FERS retirement benefits, each of which uses its own separate designation.
What the Form Covers and What It Doesn’t
The authority behind SF 1152 is 5 U.S.C. § 5581, which defines “money due” broadly to include any pay and allowances owed for your federal service that haven’t been disbursed at the time of death. In practice that means:
- Unpaid salary, premium pay, and overtime.
- A lump-sum payment for accrued annual leave, which for long-tenured employees can run into thousands of dollars.
- Unreimbursed travel expenses, per diem, and mileage.
- Relocation allowances for a change of official station.
- Cost-of-living and quarters allowances.
- Cash awards for employee suggestions.
- Refunds of payroll deductions for U.S. savings bonds.
- Undelivered or unnegotiated government checks drawn in your name.
The statute explicitly excludes retirement benefits, refunds, or interest payable under CSRS or FERS. Those are governed by separate law. FEGLI beneficiaries are designated on SF 2823, and Thrift Savings Plan accounts use Form TSP-3. Filing an SF 1152 does nothing for any of those programs, and the form itself says so in its printed language. If you want your intended beneficiaries to receive everything, you need to complete each designation separately.
Filling Out the Form
You can download SF 1152 from OPM’s website or pick one up from your HR office. It runs one page, with an instruction page that includes worked examples. Type or print every entry in ink except your signature; OPM prefers typed entries. Avoid erasures and alterations, which invite challenges to the designation after your death.
Part A: Your Identification
Enter your full legal name (last, first, middle), date of birth, and Social Security number. Fill in the department or agency where you currently work, or your last employing agency if you’ve separated, along with your bureau, division, and work location including city, state, and ZIP code. This information ties the form to your payroll and personnel records, so double-check it.
Part B: Naming Your Beneficiaries
For each beneficiary, enter the full name (first, middle initial, last), complete mailing address with ZIP code, relationship to you, and the share of unpaid compensation they should receive. Shares are given as percentages and must add up to exactly 100 percent. If you name one person, that person receives 100 percent. The form has room for multiple beneficiaries, and the printed instructions include examples for equal splits among children and for contingent beneficiaries.
You can name almost anyone: a spouse, child, parent, friend, domestic partner, or an organization such as a charity. The relationship field documents your intent but doesn’t restrict eligibility. Once your beneficiary entries are complete, date and sign Part B.
Part C: Witnesses
Two witnesses must watch you sign the form and then sign Part C, entering their addresses. A witness cannot be anyone you’ve named as a beneficiary in Part B; the form states this explicitly, and naming a beneficiary as a witness makes the designation defective. Both witnesses need to be present when you sign. Having them sign at different times doesn’t meet the requirement, so pick two people who can be in the room together, such as coworkers.
Filing It With Your Agency
Take both signed copies to your employing agency’s human resources or personnel office. The designated officer signs the receiving certification at the bottom, enters the date received, files the original in your records, and returns the annotated duplicate to you. Store that stamped duplicate with your important papers where your family or executor can find it.
Timing matters, and it isn’t flexible. The completed form must be received by your employing agency before your death for it to be valid. A form still sitting in your desk or in transit through the mail when you die does not count. Hand-delivering the form and walking out the same day with your stamped copy is the safest approach.
You don’t need to file a new form when your address or a beneficiary’s address changes; those updates don’t affect validity. You do need to file a new SF 1152 whenever you want to change who receives payment, change the percentage split, or add or remove a beneficiary. Each new form automatically cancels all prior designations. To revoke your existing designation without naming anyone new, file a new form with “Cancel prior designations” written in the beneficiary name field, which returns payment to the default order set by statute.
When You Need to File a New One
The form doesn’t follow you for your entire federal career. Three events end its validity:
- You revoke or replace it by filing a new SF 1152 or a written cancellation.
- You transfer to a different federal agency. The old agency’s copy dies with the personnel action, and you need to file a fresh form at your new agency.
- You leave federal service and later return. Reemployment by the same or any other agency resets the slate, and a new form is required.
Life events like marriage, divorce, or the death of a named beneficiary do not automatically update the form. If you divorce and your ex-spouse is still listed, that designation stands until you file a replacement. Reviewing your SF 1152 after any major family change is a small task that prevents a painful result.
If You Don’t File One
When no valid SF 1152 is on file, 5 U.S.C. § 5582 sets the order of who receives the unpaid compensation. Payment to a person in a higher tier bars anyone in a lower tier from recovering that money:
- First, your surviving spouse.
- Second, your children in equal shares, with descendants of a deceased child taking that child’s share by representation.
- Third, your surviving parent or parents.
- Fourth, the duly appointed executor or administrator of your estate.
- Fifth, the person or persons entitled under the intestacy laws of the state where you lived at the time of death.
If that default sequence already matches how you’d want the money distributed, you don’t strictly need to file the form. SF 1152 exists for employees who want a different result: leaving money to a friend, a domestic partner who isn’t a legal spouse, a charity, or dividing shares unevenly among children. Filing the form also speeds up agency processing, because HR doesn’t have to establish family relationships after your death before it can release the payment.