Federal Civilian Survivor Benefits: The FERS, FEGLI, and Workers' Compensation Map

First: confirm which system you are actually in

This sounds like a technicality. It is the single most consequential fact in your file. A person who worked with or alongside the military may have been an active-duty service member, a federal civilian employee, or a private contractor, and each one routes the family into a completely different benefit system. Military deaths run through the programs in the military survivor guide. Private contractors working on defense contracts are typically covered by their employer's insurance under a separate law, the Defense Base Act, plus whatever private benefits the employer provided. Federal civilian employees, the subject of this page, are covered by the civil service system: FERS, FEGLI, the Thrift Savings Plan, federal health benefits, and federal workers' compensation.

How to tell: the letters that arrive. Correspondence naming the Office of Personnel Management, FERS, or the Federal Employees Retirement System means civilian federal employee. A Casualty Assistance Officer and references to DFAS mean military. An insurance carrier writing about the Defense Base Act means contractor. If the picture is mixed, resolve it before filing anything, because forms filed into the wrong system waste months.

If the death was connected to the job: workers' compensation comes first

The Federal Employees' Compensation Act, FECA, pays monthly, tax-free compensation to survivors when a federal employee dies of an injury sustained in the performance of duty. The amounts are substantial: 50 percent of the employee's pay for a surviving spouse with no children, or 45 percent for the spouse plus 15 percent for each child, up to a combined maximum of 75 percent, adjusted for cost of living over time.1 For a family with children, this is frequently the largest single benefit in the entire picture, which is why it belongs at the top of the claims list even though its deadline is generous: the claim, Form CA-5, must generally be filed within three years of the death.2 File early anyway. Large claims take time, and the sooner it is in, the sooner it pays.

Three details worth knowing. The death will need to be deemed as “in the performance of duty.” This is a determination the Department of Labor makes, and it depends on what the employee was doing at the time, not on their job title. A slip in the office stairwell can qualify. Do NOT rule your family out because your spouse had a desk job. Compensation to a spouse continues for life if the survivor is 55 or older; remarriage before 55 converts it to a lump sum equal to two years of payments, and children's shares continue to 18, or 23 for full-time students.1 And FECA coordinates with certain other federal benefits, including a partial offset for Social Security benefits attributable to the federal employment, so the pieces below interact with it; the claims examiner applies these rules, but it is worth understanding that the benefits are a system, not a stack of independent checks.

Separately, if the employee died of injuries incurred in connection with service supporting the Armed Forces in a contingency operation, a one-time death gratuity of up to $100,000 may also be payable under FECA, generally to the spouse unless the employee designated someone else on Form CA-40.3

The FERS death benefit: a formula, not a mystery

If the employee had at least 18 months of federal civilian service and you were married at least nine months, or the death was accidental, or you have a child together, you are entitled to the Basic Employee Death Benefit. It equals 50 percent of the employee's final salary, or the high-three average if that is higher, plus a flat amount that rises with cost-of-living adjustments: $43,800.53 for deaths on or after December 1, 2025.4

The BEDB is taxable, and it comes with a real decision: you can take it as a lump sum, as 36 monthly installments, or roll some or all of it into an IRA to spread or defer the tax.5 The election is made on the application itself, Standard Form 3104 with the SF 3104B documentation, which Office of Personnel Management or the employing agency sends you. Because the choice changes your tax bill for the year, it is worth running a tax projection before signing rather than after. This is one of the decisions in the process that can really reward a thorough analysis.

The ten-year line: whether monthly payments exist

The FERS survivor annuity, the monthly payment for life, requires the employee to have had at least ten years of creditable service, at least 18 months of it civilian.4 When it is payable, the spousal annuity is 50 percent of the annuity the employee had earned as of the date of death.6 When the employee falls short of ten years, even by weeks, no spousal annuity is payable, and the BEDB and the other benefits on this page carry the weight instead. If your situation sits near that line, have someone verify the creditable service total carefully; prior military service, for example, can sometimes count if a deposit was made for it, and questions like that are exactly what the agency's benefits office and OPM exist to answer.

A children's annuity is a separate benefit with its own rates, and it comes with a rule that surprises families: it is reduced, often to zero, by the Social Security children's benefits payable on the same record.4 If the FERS children's amount comes back as nothing, that usually means Social Security is already paying the children more, not that something went wrong.

Life insurance: FEGLI

Most federal employees carry Federal Employees' Group Life Insurance: a Basic amount tied to salary, plus any optional coverage the employee elected, and an additional accidental death benefit in many cases where the death was accidental. Proceeds are paid to the designated beneficiary and are generally not taxed. The claim is Form FE-6, filed with the Office of Federal Employees' Group Life Insurance, which is administered by MetLife.7 As with military SGLI, the beneficiary is whoever is on the FEGLI designation form, which is separate from the will; verify it rather than assuming.

The Thrift Savings Plan

If the employee contributed to the TSP, the balance passes to the beneficiary on file with the TSP itself, reported by calling the ThriftLine and filing the death claim.8 For a surviving spouse the meaningful choice is where the money lives afterward: a spousal beneficiary account within the TSP, your own IRA, or an inherited IRA. The tradeoff is mostly about access and tax timing. Money moved into an account in your own name generally waits behind the usual retirement-age rules, while an inherited account can typically be drawn at any age without the early-withdrawal penalty. Only the traditional portion is taxed, and only as you withdraw it. There is no deadline forcing this choice, and it is worth making with your whole income picture in view rather than in the first month.

Health insurance: the continuation rules

Whether your family keeps Federal Employees Health Benefits coverage depends on two things: the employee must have been enrolled in Self Plus One or Self and Family coverage, and someone in the family must be entitled to either a survivor annuity or the BEDB.9 If a survivor annuity is payable, coverage simply continues in your name, with the government still paying its share and your share deducted from the annuity. If only the BEDB is payable, because the employee had fewer than ten years of service, you can still continue coverage by paying the premiums directly to OPM.10 The call to set this up goes to OPM's retirement office at 1-888-767-6738.

One caution before dropping federal coverage for a plan through your own employer: federal health coverage, once relinquished as a survivor, is generally difficult or impossible to get back. Compare carefully, in writing, before letting it go. If no annuity or BEDB is payable at all, the family's option is a temporary continuation and conversion process with its own short windows, which the agency's benefits office can walk you through.9

Final pay, leave, and Social Security

The employee's final paycheck and a payout of unused annual leave are claimed through the employing agency on the unpaid-compensation form, SF-1153. And as in every survivor situation, Social Security runs alongside all of this: benefits for the children, a caregiver benefit for you while children are under 16, the $255 death payment claimed within two years, and the claim itself filed by phone at 1-800-772-1213 rather than online.11 Ask the representative to run your household's numbers with and without a benefit for you, because the family maximum and your own earnings can affect which option is best for you.

What to bring to a planning conversation

• The agency's benefits letter. It usually states the BEDB estimate, the service total, and whether an annuity is payable, which frames everything else.
• The benefits statement or a recent pay stub. Salary drives the FECA and BEDB math.
• The FEGLI coverage summary and beneficiary designation.
• A TSP statement and its beneficiary designation.
• A rough monthly picture of what it costs to run your household. The benefits tell you what is coming in. This tells you what is going out, and the gap between them is what a financial plan is built around. It does not need to be exact.