How to Fill Out and Submit Your FERS Beneficiary Form (SF 3102)

The SF 3102 FERS beneficiary form is how a federal employee or retiree names who receives the lump-sum credit from their FERS retirement account at death. You complete the form, sign it in front of two witnesses who are not named as beneficiaries, and file it with your agency’s HR office if you are still working or mail it to OPM in Boyers, Pennsylvania if you have retired or separated. The designation is valid only if the correct office receives it before you die, so filing promptly matters.¹

What SF 3102 Actually Covers

The form controls one benefit: the lump-sum credit from your FERS retirement account, made up of your employee contributions to the Civil Service Retirement and Disability Fund plus any applicable interest.² If you contributed under CSRS before switching to FERS, those amounts are covered too.³

It does not cover other federal benefits people often assume it does. Unpaid salary and unused annual leave use SF 1152. Your Thrift Savings Plan account uses TSP-3. Federal Employees’ Group Life Insurance uses SF 2823. The SF 3102 instructions specifically warn against confusing it with those forms.³

SF 3102 also has no effect on a surviving spouse’s monthly FERS survivor annuity. That benefit is governed by separate statutory rules. The lump-sum credit generally becomes payable only when no survivor annuity is owed, though a lump sum may be paid later if all survivor annuities end and total payments are less than what you contributed.⁴

Filling Out the Form

Download the current version from OPM’s Standard Forms page.⁵ The fillable PDF lets you type everything and check it before printing, which matters because the form doesn’t allow corrections. OPM will not accept electronic signatures; you need wet ink.

Your Identification

Enter your full legal name, date of birth, and Social Security number. The SSN is what links the form to your retirement record, so verify every digit. A transposition can disconnect the designation from your account.³

Beneficiaries and Shares

For each beneficiary, list first name, middle initial, last name, complete mailing address with ZIP code, relationship to you, and share. You can name a person, a company, a trust, or any other legal entity.¹

Shares must be expressed as percentages or fractions. “50%,” “one half,” and “all” are acceptable. Dollar amounts are not. The total has to equal exactly 100 percent. If the shares add up to less, the leftover portion falls into the statutory order of precedence. If they add up to more, OPM adjusts each share proportionally.¹

Contingent Beneficiaries

To name a backup, list the primary beneficiary followed by “if living,” and on the next line write “Otherwise to:” followed by the contingent beneficiary’s name and address. Assign both lines the same percentage.³

If you name several beneficiaries without contingents, a deceased or disqualified beneficiary’s share splits equally among the survivors, or goes entirely to the lone survivor.³

Naming a Trust

You can name a living trust or a testamentary trust, but the wording has to follow OPM’s format. For a living trust, write the beneficiary name as: “Trustee(s) or Successor Trustee(s) as provided in the [Name of Trust] Trust Agreement dated [Date], if valid. Otherwise to: [contingent beneficiary name].” In the relationship column, write “Trustee.” A testamentary trust follows the same pattern but references your Last Will and Testament. Naming a contingent after “Otherwise to:” is optional; without one, an invalid trust sends the money into the statutory order of precedence.³

Witnesses and Signatures

Two people must witness your signature. Each one signs, prints their name, and gives an address. A witness cannot be anyone named as a beneficiary on the form; a witness who is also a designated beneficiary loses the right to receive payment.¹ Coworkers, friends, or family members who are not named on the form all work.

Corrections are not allowed. OPM’s instructions read: “Do not erase or alter entries. No corrections are permitted on this form.”³ Any mistake means starting over on a fresh copy.

Where to Send It

Where you file depends on your status.

If you are a current employee, submit the completed form to your agency’s HR office. HR keeps the original in your Official Personnel Folder and forwards it to OPM when you separate. Ask for a date-stamped copy as proof of filing.³
If you are retired or separated, mail both the original and the employee copy directly to OPM at P.O. Box 45, Boyers, PA 16017. Certified mail with return receipt gives you proof of delivery.³

A designation is legally effective only if the appropriate office receives it before you die.¹ A form found in a desk drawer after death has no effect. A beneficiary change written into a will, or into any other document not properly witnessed and filed with your employing office or OPM, is void.⁶

Changing or Canceling a Designation

Filing a new SF 3102 automatically cancels every previous FERS and CSRS beneficiary designation. No separate cancellation letter is needed; the new form lists everyone you want going forward.³ You can change beneficiaries at any time, and you do not need the previous beneficiary’s knowledge or consent.¹

A designation also cancels itself if you take a refund of your retirement contributions before retirement, since nothing is left in the fund for the form to direct.³

Divorce Does Not Update the Form

A divorce decree does not cancel or change your SF 3102. OPM pays whoever you named, even if that person is now your former spouse. The instructions describe the scenario directly: if you designate your spouse, then divorce and remarry, OPM will pay the lump sum to your former spouse unless you file a new designation.³ The same is true after any life change: new marriage, a birth, a beneficiary’s death. OPM does not adjust the form to match your circumstances.

If You Never File a Form

With no valid SF 3102 on file, OPM pays the lump-sum credit under the statutory order in 5 U.S.C. § 8424(d): surviving spouse first; then surviving children (natural and adopted, but not stepchildren), with descendants of deceased children taking by representation; then surviving parents in equal shares; then the executor or administrator of your estate; then next of kin under the law of your state of legal residence at death.⁶

OPM has no discretion to depart from that order. Verbal promises, informal letters, and provisions in a will do not override it. Payment at one level bars all claims at lower levels.⁶ If the default matches what you want, filing SF 3102 is not strictly necessary, but a clean designation removes ambiguity and speeds claim processing after your death.

1
eCFR. 5 CFR 843.205 – Designation of Beneficiary – Form and Execution
2
U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Former Employees
3
U.S. Office of Personnel Management. SF 3102 FERS Designation of Beneficiary
4
U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Survivors
5
U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Standard Forms
6
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 5 USC 8424 – Lump-Sum Benefits; Designation of Beneficiary; Order of Precedence