How to Fill Out and Submit SF 3104 for Federal Death Benefits

To claim Federal Employees Retirement System death benefits, a survivor files Form SF 3104, the Application for Death Benefits, together with the companion form SF 3104B and supporting documents like a certified death certificate and marriage certificate. Send the completed package to the Office of Personnel Management’s Retirement Operations Center in Boyers, Pennsylvania. Before you touch the form, report the death to OPM so the agency can stop any annuity payments and mail you the application packet.

Report the Death to OPM First

Notify OPM that the federal employee or retiree has died before you file anything. You can call OPM or use the online report form on the agency’s website. If the deceased was a current federal employee, the employing agency’s human resources office handles the initial notification and sends OPM a death package with service records and payroll information.¹

Reporting promptly matters when the deceased was already retired. OPM needs to stop annuity payments, and any deposits made after the date of death have to be returned. Once OPM processes the death report, it typically mails the survivor an application package that includes SF 3104, SF 3104B, and a pre-addressed return envelope.²

Who Can File SF 3104

A surviving spouse is the most common applicant. To qualify for a survivor annuity, the spouse generally must have been married to the deceased for at least nine months before the death. Two exceptions waive the nine-month requirement: the spouse is the parent of a child born of the marriage, or the death was accidental.³

Surviving children can also qualify. A child must be unmarried and either under 18, between 18 and 22 and enrolled as a full-time student, or any age if they became mentally or physically unable to support themselves before turning 18.³

A former spouse may file if a court order awards a portion of the survivor annuity or the Basic Employee Death Benefit. The form instructs former spouses to contact the deceased’s former employing agency to complete the election forms on SF 3104B.⁴

Order of Precedence for Lump-Sum Benefits

When the benefit is a lump-sum payment rather than a monthly annuity, federal law sets a strict payment order. Payment goes first to a beneficiary the employee or retiree named in a signed and witnessed designation form filed with OPM. If none is on file or the named beneficiary has died, the payment goes to the surviving spouse; then to children (and descendants of deceased children); then to parents; then to the executor or administrator of the estate; and finally to other next of kin under the laws of the deceased’s home state. A designation in a will or any other document not separately filed with OPM has no effect on this order.⁵

Documents to Gather Before You Start

Pull these together before you sit down with the form. Missing documents are the most common reason claims get delayed, and each round-trip to OPM for more paperwork adds weeks.

Certified death certificate showing the cause of death. Order several certified copies. The Thrift Savings Plan and FEGLI claims each need their own.
Marriage certificate, if you are the surviving spouse. For common-law marriages, provide either a court order recognizing the marriage or two notarized affidavits from people in a position to confirm the facts of the marriage.⁴
Divorce decrees or annulment orders for every prior marriage of the deceased that ended in divorce or annulment. If a prior spouse died, provide that death certificate instead.
Birth certificates for any children claiming benefits.
Court appointment order if you are the executor or administrator of the estate. OPM specifically notes that a will alone is not sufficient.⁴
A copy of the beneficiary designation form, if you were named and have one.
The CSA or CSF retirement claim number. It appears on official OPM correspondence as a 9-character alphanumeric string starting with either “CSA” or “CSF.” If the deceased was a current employee who never retired, there may not be one.⁶

How to Complete SF 3104

SF 3104 is available as a fillable PDF on the OPM website. You can type into it, but you still need to print, sign, and mail it. Each section asks for a distinct piece of the picture.

Section A — Information About the Deceased

Enter the deceased’s full name, Social Security number, date of birth, and date of death. Indicate whether the deceased was a current employee, former employee, or retiree at the time of death, and name their last federal agency. If the deceased ever applied for or received retirement benefits, include the CSA or CSF claim number.⁴

This section also asks whether the deceased ever received or applied for benefits from the Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs. Workers’ compensation and FERS survivor benefits generally cannot be paid for the same period, so note any pending workers’ comp claim.

Item 10 asks about the deceased’s marriage history. List every former marriage with dates and how each one ended. If the deceased was never previously married, write “none.” Attach the divorce decree, annulment order, or death certificate for each former spouse.⁴

Section B — Information About the Applicant

Identify yourself and your relationship to the deceased. Check the box that matches your status: surviving spouse, child, designated beneficiary, parent, or executor/administrator. Enter your Social Security number, date of birth, and contact information.

If you check “parent,” both living parents must submit separate completed applications. If one parent is deceased, attach that parent’s death certificate. If you are the executor or administrator, remember that OPM requires the court appointment order, not just the will.⁴

Section C — Information About the Spouse

If you are the surviving spouse, enter the date and place of your marriage and attach your marriage certificate. For common-law marriages, provide either a court judgment recognizing the marriage or two notarized affidavits from people who can attest to the relationship.

Section D — Information About a Former Spouse

Complete this section only if a former spouse of the deceased has a court order entitling them to a portion of survivor benefits. A former spouse claiming benefits also needs to provide details of the court order and contact the deceased’s former employing agency to complete the election forms on SF 3104B.

Completing SF 3104B

SF 3104B is a separate form that travels with SF 3104. Where SF 3104 establishes who you are, SF 3104B is where you make elections, including the type of survivor annuity you want and the bank routing and account numbers for direct deposit.⁷

Double-check your bank account and routing numbers. A single transposed digit can send payment to the wrong account or cause the transfer to fail, adding weeks. If you are claiming benefits for minor children as well as yourself, one application covers both. You do not need to file a separate application for each child.¹

Where to Send the Application

Mail the completed SF 3104, SF 3104B, and all supporting documents to:

Office of Personnel Management
Retirement Operations Center
ATTENTION: Survivor Processing Section
Post Office Box 45
Boyers, Pennsylvania 16017-0045¹

Send the package by certified mail with return receipt so you have proof OPM received it. A certified death certificate, a marriage certificate, and court orders are difficult or impossible to replace quickly, and you do not want them lost in transit. If OPM sent you a pre-addressed pink return envelope with the application package, you can use that; certified mail still gives you a tracking number.

What Happens After You File

Once OPM receives a complete application, the claim is assigned to a specialist and processed in the order it was received. If the deceased was a current employee, OPM waits for the death package from the employing agency and payroll office before assigning a specialist. If the specialist needs additional information, they will contact you directly.²

OPM publishes current processing times on its website, and they fluctuate with claim volume and staffing. Respond quickly to any request for documentation, because delays on your end push the claim further back. During processing, OPM may provide interim payments, typically 60 to 80 percent of the estimated net annuity, to help cover expenses while the final benefit is calculated.⁸

Benefits SF 3104 Does Not Cover

SF 3104 covers only the FERS retirement death benefit. Two other major federal employee benefits require entirely separate claims.

Federal Employees Group Life Insurance benefits are administered by MetLife, not OPM. The claim form is FE-6, available on the OPM website. Much of the same information is needed, but the claim goes to MetLife rather than the Retirement Operations Center. If the deceased was a current employee, the employing agency’s HR office usually initiates this process.

Thrift Savings Plan death benefits follow their own track. Someone submits Form TSP-17 with a death certificate to the TSP recordkeeper, which then determines beneficiaries by checking for a valid TSP-3 designation on file. If no TSP-3 exists, the TSP applies its own statutory order of precedence, which is similar to but legally separate from the FERS order. From receipt of the TSP-17 and death certificate to payment generally takes about three months.⁹

1
U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Report of Death
2
U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Survivor Benefits
3
eCFR. 5 CFR Part 843 – Federal Employees Retirement System — Death Benefits and Employee Refunds
4
U.S. Office of Personnel Management. SF 3104 – Application for Death Benefits
5
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 5 USC 8424 – Lump-Sum Benefits; Designation of Beneficiary
6
U.S. Office of Personnel Management. What Does the OPM Retirement Claim Number Look Like?
7
U.S. Office of Personnel Management. SF 3104B – Documentation and Elections of Benefits Under FERS
8
U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Retirement Quick Guide
9
Thrift Savings Plan. Thrift Savings Plan Death Benefits