If I die before I retire does my wife automatically receive the benefit when she retires?Yes, if you are a general state employee, married, vested in MOSERS, and die before you retire with MOSERS, your eligible surviving spouse will receive survivor benefits. Survivor benefit payments can begin as early as the month following your death provided that MOSERS receives and processes the survivor application and all necessary documentation, such as a death certificate*.
The monthly benefit for your spouse will be based on the benefit you have accrued as of your date of death and calculated according to the Joint & 100% Survivor Option. The survivor benefit will be paid monthly for the remainder of your spouse's lifetime.
If there is no eligible spouse, a survivor benefit may be paid to your natural or legally adopted child(ren) who are younger than age 21. This benefit is dependent on the law in effect at the time of your termination. If there is more than one eligible child, the benefit will be divided equally among them. The survivor benefit for each child will stop when the child becomes age 21 (unless a child is totally disabled and you terminated service with the state on or after 8/28/2001).
If you die without any eligible beneficiaries, no retirement benefits are paid.
Otherwise, during the retirement process, you will make elections to determine if any potential survivor benefits will be paid to anyone after your death or not.
*Exception: The “immediate” survivor benefit provision is not available for future terminated-vested members of MSEP 2011 who will be hired after January 1, 2018. This was a change made in SB62 during the 2017 legislative session as a cost offset for the reduction in the vesting requirement from 10 years to 5 years for members of MSEP 2011. Eligible survivors of such members will begin receiving benefits when the deceased member would have attained normal retirement age.
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