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Avoiding potential confusion about survivor benefits.
Retirement Counseling and Training www.retirefederal.com
In last week’s column, we looked at an important, but sometimes confusing, question on retirement application forms about former spouses and annuities.
Another part of the retirement application that can be confusing when there is a former spouse involved is the annuity election for survivor benefits (Section D of the SF-3107 Federal Employees Retirement System Application for Immediate Retirement and Section F of the SF-2801 Civil Service Retirement System Application for Immediate Retirement.)
If you’re not married at retirement, generally you will initial the box beside Option 3: “I choose an annuity payable only during my lifetime.” If you have a former spouse who was awarded a survivor annuity in a court order, they will receive that automatically from the Office of Personnel Management. You don’t need to indicate i