Post-Retirement

If you marry after retirement, you can elect a reduced annuity to provide a survivor annuity for your spouse. You must make this election within two years of the date of your marriage. Under the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS), you can elect any portion of your annuity as a basis for the survivor benefit payable to your spouse in the event of your death. Under the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS), a full benefit is 50 percent of your unreduced annual basic annuity, and a partial benefit is 25 percent of your unreduced annual basic annuity.

After deciding on the amount of the survivor annuity benefit, your annuity will have two reductions applied to it. The first reduction is the regular reduction to pay for the cost of the survivor benefit for your spouse. In addition, your annuity is reduced by a permanent actuarial reduction equal to the difference between the new annuity rate with the survivor benefit and the old one without the survivor benefit since your retirement, plus six percent interest. In most cases, the actuarial reduction amount is less than five percent of your annuity. The actuarial reduction to your annuity continues even if the marriage ends. When you contact us, we will send you a statement describing the cost of the election and ask you to confirm your election. The cost of a survivor benefit election before retirement is computed differently and is explained in the retirement application.