Federal Retiree Death Benefits — Claim Every Dollar Owed to Your Family

Your family's federal benefits are scattered across five agencies. You have 90 days to claim them all.

Within hours of a federal retiree's death, the U.S. Treasury begins clawing back pension deposits from the bank account. The survivor annuity forms sit in a pile with marriage certificates, court documents, and life insurance paperwork you've never seen. OPM's phone line puts you on hold for 45 minutes. And somewhere in the back of your mind, you're wondering whether the health insurance is about to disappear.

The forms are free. The instructions aren't.

OPM publishes blank forms. The TSP has a portal. Social Security has a phone number. But nobody tells you the sequence — which agency to contact first, what to say, which documents each one needs, and what happens when you get the order wrong.

The Survivor Claims Blueprint

This guide puts the entire multi-agency claims process into a single document — from the hour you report the death through the month OPM starts paying your survivor annuity. It's the execution roadmap that connects OPM, OFEGLI, the Thrift Savings Plan, FEHB or PSHB, Social Security, and the IRS into one chronological sequence.

Instead of calling four agencies and hoping you asked the right questions, you follow the same step-by-step process that moves a claim from "death reported" to "survivor annuity depositing monthly" — without the errors that cause multi-month processing delays.

What's Inside

• Treasury reclamation protection — the bank clawback under 31 CFR Part 210 is the first financial shock families face. The guide explains exactly how ACH reclamation works, when it hits, and what to do with joint accounts before the withdrawal lands.
• Line-by-line form instructions — SF 3104 and SF 3104A for FERS survivors, SF 2800 for CSRS survivors, FE-6 for FEGLI life insurance claims, TSP-17 for Thrift Savings Plan recovery, and SF 1153 for unpaid final compensation. Every form, every field, every required attachment.
• The nine-month marriage rule and its exceptions — OPM requires nine months of marriage for survivor annuity eligibility, but accidental death and children of the marriage create exceptions. The guide explains when the rule applies and what documentation proves you qualify.
• FEGLI reduction math that actually makes sense — post-retirement Basic FEGLI with 75% Reduction drops by 2% per month starting at age 65 until it reaches 25% of the original face value. The guide walks you through calculating the actual payout before you file FE-6, so you're not blindsided by a number far lower than expected.
• Health coverage continuation rules — your FEHB or PSHB enrollment continues only if you're entitled to a monthly survivor annuity and were enrolled in Self Plus One or Self and Family at the time of death. If those conditions aren't met, you have 31 days and a set of specific alternatives. The guide maps every path.
• Social Security after the GPO repeal — the Government Pension Offset and the Windfall Elimination Provision were repealed by the Social Security Fairness Act (H.R. 82, signed January 5, 2025) for benefits payable from January 2024 onward. If you never applied because GPO would have zeroed your benefit, you need to file a new claim by phone. The guide walks you through it.
• Former spouse and court order claims — if a Court Order Acceptable for Processing (COAP) under 5 CFR Part 838 entitles a former spouse to a share of the survivor annuity, the guide explains how OPM interprets competing claims and what documentation you need.
• Tax setup and contribution recovery — survivor annuities are federally taxable, but IRS Publication 721 lets you recover the retiree's after-tax contributions using the simplified method. The guide explains the calculation and walks you through setting up federal and state withholding via OPM.
• Worksheets and a complete agency directory — a document-gathering checklist (certified death certificates, marriage license, DD-214, divorce decrees), benefit calculation worksheets, and direct contact numbers for every agency involved in the claims process.

Who This Guide Is For

• Surviving spouses of FERS or CSRS retirees who need to file claims across multiple federal agencies while protecting their income, health insurance, and bank account
• Adult children and estate executors managing the death benefits process for an aging parent — you're the one making the calls, filling out the forms, and tracking the deadlines
• Former spouses with a qualifying court order who need to protect their legal entitlement to a portion of the survivor annuity

Why Not Just Use the Free Information?

You can. OPM's forms are free, and the regulations are published online. Here's what you'll be working with:

• OPM's survivor benefits page covers pension claims but doesn't mention Treasury reclamation, TSP recovery, or Social Security filing
• The TSP website explains beneficiary accounts but doesn't tell you how the TSP payout interacts with FERS survivor annuity timing
• Social Security's website has been updated for the GPO repeal, but most blog posts, forum threads, and even some financial advisor sites still describe GPO and WEP as active law
• FEHB continuation rules are buried in 5 CFR Part 890 — and now you need to know whether PSHB applies instead

The cost of getting the sequence wrong isn't money — it's time. A missing attachment on SF 3104 can add 60 to 90 days to OPM's processing timeline. A missed FEGLI deadline means lost life insurance proceeds. And a bank account frozen by Treasury reclamation can take weeks to resolve.

This guide puts every agency, every form, and every deadline into one document so nothing falls through the cracks.

What You Get

Your download includes 10 printable PDFs:

• The full guide — 12 chapters covering death reporting, survivor annuity applications (FERS and CSRS), FEGLI claims, TSP recovery, health coverage continuation, Social Security filing, tax setup, former spouse claims, overpayment disputes, and worked dollar examples
• The Notify, Claim & Continue Checklist — a printable, chronological task list for the first 30 days
• Document Gathering Checklist — every certified record organized by which agency requires it, with space to track what you have
• Agency Communication Log — a fillable log for every call and submission, so you have a paper trail if anything is disputed
• Survivor Annuity Calculation Worksheet — estimate your monthly FERS or CSRS survivor annuity before OPM's final determination
• Benefit Timeline Tracker — filing deadlines and expected payment dates from day one through adjudication
• Tax Basis Recovery Worksheet — the IRS Publication 721 Simplified Method calculation for your tax-free monthly amount
• FEGLI Payout Calculator — work out the actual post-reduction death benefit before filing Form FE-6
• Health Coverage Continuation Map — FEHB and PSHB rules, TCC options, and the PSHB Medicare Part B requirement
• Agency Contact Directory — every phone number, mailing address, and online portal on one printable page

Full Refund, No Time Limit

If the guide doesn't help, email [email protected] for a full refund. No time limit, no questions.

Your family earned these benefits over a career of federal service. This guide helps you claim every one of them — correctly, completely, and on time.