Why won’t I receive a survivor benefit?

The Office of the Participant and Plan Sponsor Advocate frequently hears from individuals who were expecting to receive survivor benefits under a pension earned by a spouse, former spouse, or other relative, but were denied a survivor benefit by PBGC. The rules covering survivor benefits can be confusing, so the following information might be helpful.

When a participant (an individual who earned a benefit under a pension plan) is ready to begin receiving monthly benefit payments, they will need to apply for benefits. During the application process participants tell the pension plan what form of benefit they wish to receive. For example, an annuity is a form of benefit that provides monthly benefit payments for the rest of the participant’s life, while a lump sum is a form of benefit that involves a one-time benefit payment to the participant. Some forms of benefit involve survivor benefit payments to a beneficiary, while some don’t. The forms of benefit available can vary from pension plan to pension plan. 

If the participant is married when they apply for benefits, federal law requires pension plans to provide monthly survivor benefit payments to the participant’s spouse for life, and the participant may not elect a form of benefit that does not provide these monthly payments unless the spouse signs a waiver form consenting to a different form of benefit.

If the participant is unmarried at the time of benefit application, there is no legal requirement that the participant elect a form of benefit that provides survivor benefits, with the exception that the participant may be required to elect a survivor benefit for a divorced former spouse if that person has obtained a special court order called a Qualified Domestic Relations Order (QDRO). The Department of Labor also has a very helpful publication on QDROs. 

Under many forms of benefit, if the participant elects to provide a survivor benefit to a beneficiary, the participant’s monthly payments will be reduced to account for future payments to the beneficiary. Some participants do not elect to provide a survivor benefit because they do not want their monthly benefit payments reduced while they are alive.

Whether a survivor benefit is available depends on what form of benefit the participant elects at the time of benefit application. PBGC cannot change the form of benefit that a participant elected once the participant has already begun receiving benefit payments. This is the case regardless of whether the participant began receiving benefit payments before or after PBGC became responsible for administering the participant’s pension plan.

If a participant began receiving benefit payments before PBGC began administering the plan, PBGC will honor the participant’s original form of benefit election because it cannot retroactively change a participant’s benefit election once payments begin. However, participants who have not already begun receiving benefit payments must choose one of the forms of benefit that PBGC offers when they eventually go to apply for benefits from PBGC. You can learn about the forms of benefit that PBGC offers in the “Your Benefit, Your Choice” publication. Married participants must elect to provide a survivor benefit unless the spouse consents to a different option.

Common reasons why someone may not be entitled to a survivor benefit

You are not a spouse, so you have fewer protections

Children of beneficiaries, other relatives, friends, and unmarried partners without a special court order do not have a guaranteed legal right to a survivor benefit. Whether these individuals will receive a survivor benefit will depend on whether survivor benefits for non-spouses were an available option when the participant applied for benefits and what the participant elected when they filled out the benefit application. PBGC cannot change this election retroactively.

Likewise, if the participant dies before the benefit election process, only a current spouse or someone with a QDRO expressly granting survivor benefits is legally entitled to receive a survivor benefit.

You were married after the participant began receiving benefit payments

As discussed above, a participant’s monthly benefit payments must be reduced to account for future survivor benefit payments. Once an unmarried participant begins receiving monthly benefit payments that have not been reduced to account for a survivor benefit, a survivor benefit can no longer be provided. This means that if a participant gets married after they have already begun receiving unreduced monthly benefit payments, it is too late to reduce the participant’s monthly benefit payment amount and PBGC cannot provide a survivor benefit to the participant’s spouse.

An exception is that the participant can change beneficiaries if the participant elected to take their benefit as a continuous-and-certain-annuity. You can learn about PBGC’s certain-and-continuous annuities in PBGC's booklet "Your Benefit Options."

A divorced former spouse is already entitled to the survivor benefit

There are two ways that a participant’s former spouse might be entitled to the survivor benefit. 

First, a former spouse could have obtained and submitted a QDRO to PBGC that entitles them to the survivor benefit. Often, parties to a divorce negotiate how to divide up marital assets, and it is possible that the participant’s former spouse gave up other rights, such as rights to a house, another retirement benefit, or other assets in exchange for a survivor benefit under the participant’s pension. The former spouse’s right to the survivor benefit is something that would have been decided as part of a divorce or other family court proceeding to reflect negotiation, and a QDRO is a formal court order. Federal law requires PBGC to honor such a court order. 

Secondly, if you married the participant after they began receiving monthly pension payments and they were married to someone else at the time they began receiving payments, assuming that individual did not waive their right to the survivor benefit, that previous spouse will remain the beneficiary for the purposes of the survivor benefit, even without a QDRO. 

PBGC cannot transfer the survivor benefit from a former spouse to a new spouse, because the amount of the survivor benefit and the reduction in the participant’s monthly benefit payments to account for that survivor benefit would have been based on specific information about the participant’s spouse at that time. This even remains the case if the person named as beneficiary has died. 

An exception is if the participant elected a continuous and certain annuity as noted above. 

One additional note

There is a difference between choosing a beneficiary to receive a survivor benefit and choosing a beneficiary to receive any money PBGC still owes the participant at death. Even if the participant has named you as a beneficiary to receive any money PBGC may still owe the participant at the time the participant dies, this does not mean that you are entitled to a survivor benefit. To learn more about the distinction with survivor benefits, visit Name your PBGC beneficiary.