FERS survivor benefit in 2026: what each election costs and pays
At retirement a married FERS employee chooses how much of the annuity continues to the spouse. Enter your unreduced annuity and an election to see the cost and what your survivor would receive.
Your annuity after the survivor election
$2,880/mo
Your survivor would receive $1,600 a month for life, plus COLAs.
| Cost per month | $320 |
| Survivor annuity per month | $1,600 |
| Survivor years to recover each year of cost | 0.2 |
| Survivor total over 8 years | $153,600 |
Prepared by Radif Partners · How the figures are built · read on opm.gov, ecfr.gov and ssa.gov · not an official determination
When you retire under FERS while married, your annuity is reduced to provide a survivor annuity unless your spouse agrees otherwise. The full survivor benefit pays your spouse 50 % of your annuity for life after your death and costs 10 % of your annuity. The partial benefit pays 25 % and costs 5 %. On a $3,200 monthly annuity, the full election costs $320 a month and would pay your spouse $1,600 a month; the partial one costs $160 and pays $800. Your spouse must consent to a partial benefit or to none. Both options have the same ratio: each year your survivor collects repays 5 years of cost, so after 25 years of retirement the election has paid for itself once the survivor has drawn 5 years. The reduction stops if your spouse dies first or the marriage ends. A survivor who remarries before 55 loses the annuity unless the marriage lasted 30 years.
The three choices at retirement
The election is made once, on your retirement application, and it shapes your income and your spouse's for decades. OPM's survivor benefits page sets out the options for FERS. The maximum survivor annuity pays your spouse 50 % of your annuity and reduces your own by 10 %. The partial survivor annuity pays 25 % and reduces yours by 5 %. With no survivor annuity, nothing is taken from your payments and nothing continues after your death. If you are married at retirement, your spouse must consent to the partial benefit or to none; otherwise the full one applies.
| Election | Your annuity is cut by | On $3,200/mo | Spouse receives | On $3,200/mo |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full | 10 % | -$320 | 50 % | $1,600 |
| Partial | 5 % | -$160 | 25 % | $800 |
| None (spouse consent) | 0 % | $0 | 0 % | $0 |
How OPM applies the cost
The reduction is set by 5 U.S.C. 8419: 10 % for a full survivor annuity and a smaller share, 5 %, for a partial one. In the computation, OPM applies it after the age reduction of an MRA+10 or early deferred annuity, and the handbook worksheets use the annuity after that age reduction as the base for the survivor. In practice, a retiree born in 1968 who leaves at the MRA with 16 years and a $90,000 high-3 has an unreduced annuity of $14,400, $10,560 after the age cut. The full survivor cost is $1,056 a year, and the survivor annuity is 50 % of $10,560, about $440 a month. For an immediate unreduced annuity there is no age cut: with 30 years and a $110,000 high-3, the annuity of $33,000 becomes $29,700, and the survivor would receive $1,375 a month. The handbook adds that the survivor annuity includes the COLAs the retiree received before death.
Cost and value of your election
Your annuity after the survivor election
$2,660/mo
| Cost per month | $140 |
| Survivor annuity per month | $700 |
| Survivor years to recover each year of cost | 0.2 |
| Survivor total over 8 years | $67,200 |
The break-even in years
Both options are priced the same way: the yearly cost is 20 % of the yearly survivor benefit. Each year your survivor collects therefore repays 5 years of reduction. If you draw your annuity for 20 years, the election pays for itself once your spouse has drawn 4 years; after 25 years of retirement, 5 years. COLAs raise both the cost and the benefit in the same proportion and do not change this ratio. The comparison leaves out what matters most to many couples: the survivor annuity is the income that keeps paying when your own stops, and it carries health coverage with it.
Health coverage after your death
OPM's rule is direct: a surviving spouse can keep health benefits only if a monthly survivor annuity, or the basic employee death benefit, is payable, if your enrollment was Self and Family or Self Plus One on the date of death, and if the spouse was covered under it. The premiums are then taken from the survivor annuity. A couple who waive the survivor annuity to keep $320 a month may also be giving up the spouse's health plan. The partial election keeps that link at half the cost of the full one.
When the reduction stops
Under section 8419, if your spouse dies before you, or the marriage ends in divorce, the reduction ends for each full month after that event, and your annuity is restored to the unreduced amount. The exception is a court order that awards a survivor annuity to a former spouse: the reduction continues for that benefit. A former spouse can receive a survivor annuity only if a qualifying court order expressly awards it and the marriage lasted at least 9 months in total.
Remarriage of the survivor
A spouse's survivor annuity ends at remarriage before age 55, unless the survivor was married to you for at least 30 years. Remarriage at 55 or later does not affect it. If a surviving spouse's annuity stopped because of a remarriage before 55 and that marriage later ends by death, annulment or divorce, it can be restored once any lump sum paid at termination is repaid.
How to decide
Three questions settle most cases: would your spouse need the income if you died first, does your spouse have a pension and health coverage of their own, and how large is the gap in your ages. Life insurance can replace part of a survivor annuity, but it does not keep a spouse in FEHB. Run your own figures in the calculator above and in the FERS retirement calculator, which applies the cost after every other reduction. The OPM computation page shows where the survivor reduction falls in the order, and our method page lists the rules used.