To report the death of a Florida Retirement System member or retiree, call the FRS Division of Retirement toll-free at 844-377-1888, call locally at 850-907-6500, or file the notification online through FRS Online at FRS.FL.gov.1Florida Retirement System. Survivor Benefits Guide Have the deceased’s full name, date of death, and FRS ID or Social Security number ready. Doing this quickly matters: it stops payments that would otherwise have to be returned and starts the clock on any survivor benefit the family is entitled to.
What the Division Needs From You
After the initial call or online report, the Division will tell you what benefits may be payable and send the forms that fit the situation. You will need to provide a certified copy of the official death certificate. If a continuing monthly survivor benefit is available under the Pension Plan, the Division sends the Application of Beneficiary for Monthly Retirement Benefits, Form FST-11b, for the survivor to complete.2Florida Retirement System. Application of Beneficiary for Monthly Retirement Benefits
Keep a copy of everything you send. Survivor benefit processing can involve back-and-forth on documentation, and having your own file speeds things up when questions come back.
The Payment for the Month of Death
Under FRS administrative rules, the retirement benefit is paid through the last day of the month in which the member dies. Payments then stop or adjust based on the option the member chose at retirement. The payment covering the month of death is still owed. If the Division learns of the death before that month’s payment has been deposited or cashed, it reissues that payment to the member’s estate rather than the original bank account.3Legal Information Institute. Florida Code 60S-4.008 – Benefits Payable Upon Death
The trouble starts when a death goes unreported and deposits keep landing. Any funds paid for months after the month of death have to be returned, and the Division works with the bank to recover them. Unresolved overpayments can hold up the survivor benefit itself, so notification is not just a courtesy step.
If the Member Was Already Retired: The Four Pension Plan Options
For a retired Pension Plan member, the survivor benefit was set the day the member retired, sometimes years or decades earlier. The retirement option controls everything.4MyFRS. FRS Programs Retirement System Pension Plan
- Option 1 paid the highest monthly amount during the member’s life but leaves nothing continuing after death. The beneficiary receives only a refund of any personal contributions that exceed benefits already paid, which for long-term retirees is often zero.
- Option 2 paid a reduced amount with a ten-year guarantee. If the retiree dies before ten years of payments have been made, the beneficiary receives the remaining monthly payments until that ten-year period ends, then payments stop.
- Option 3 pays a reduced amount for life, with 100% of that amount continuing to a qualified joint annuitant for the rest of the joint annuitant’s life.
- Option 4 pays a reduced amount, and when either the retiree or the joint annuitant dies, the survivor’s monthly benefit drops to two-thirds of the original amount for life.
Options 3 and 4 are the only ones that provide a lifetime continuing benefit.5Florida Retirement System. Joint Annuitant Information – What Option There is no way to change the option after the member’s death. Survivors who discover Option 1 was selected have no avenue for appeal on that choice.
Who Counts as a Joint Annuitant
Options 3 and 4 pay a continuing benefit only to a person who qualifies as a joint annuitant. The eligible categories are the member’s spouse; a natural or legally adopted child under age 25, or one who is physically or mentally disabled and unable to support themselves; a person for whom the member is the legal guardian and who depends on the member for at least half of their financial support; and a parent or grandparent who depends on the member for at least half of their financial support.6Division of Retirement. Joint Annuitant Information
A friend, sibling, or adult child over 25 who is not disabled cannot receive the continuing monthly benefit, even if they were financially dependent on the member.
If the Member Died While Still Working
When a Pension Plan member dies before retiring, no payment option was ever selected, so the calculation runs differently. The pivotal question is whether the member was vested.
Members who enrolled in the FRS before July 1, 2011, vest after six years of creditable service. Members who enrolled on or after that date vest after eight years.7MyFRS. FRS Programs Comparing the Plans Eligibility to Receive a Benefit
If a vested member dies from a cause other than line-of-duty and the beneficiary qualifies as a joint annuitant, that joint annuitant can choose between a refund of the member’s accumulated contributions or a lifetime monthly benefit. The monthly benefit is calculated as though the member had left employment on the date of death and retired the following month under Option 3, meaning 100% of the calculated benefit continues to the joint annuitant for life.8Florida Retirement System. Chapter 11 Survivor Benefits The monthly benefit is often worth substantially more than the contribution refund, so ask the Division to calculate both amounts before choosing.
If the member had not yet vested, the beneficiary receives only a refund of employee contributions the member paid into the system.3Legal Information Institute. Florida Code 60S-4.008 – Benefits Payable Upon Death No continuing monthly benefit is available. For members in positions where the employer paid all contributions, that refund may be nothing at all.
Line-of-Duty Deaths
When an FRS member is killed in the line of duty, a special benefit overrides the normal rules. The surviving spouse may receive a monthly pension equal to one-half of the salary the member was earning at the time of death, payable for the rest of the spouse’s life.9Florida Senate. Florida Statutes 121.091 – Benefits Payable Under the System If the member was vested, the spouse can elect the standard vested-member survivor benefit instead if that calculation produces a higher amount.
This benefit applies regardless of years of service or vesting status, and it supersedes any beneficiary designation on file. For Investment Plan members killed in the line of duty, the spouse and unmarried children may receive these same monthly survivor benefits in place of the account balance distribution.10Legal Information Institute. Florida Admin Code 19-11.014 – Benefits Payable for Investment Plan Disability and In-Line-Of-Duty Death Benefits Special Risk Class members killed in the line of duty may qualify for additional benefits beyond the standard in-line-of-duty provision. One important limit: survivors of DROP participants are not eligible for in-line-of-duty death benefits, even if the member dies in circumstances that would otherwise qualify.11Florida Retirement System. Pension Plan – Deferred Retirement Option Program
DROP Participants
Members in the Deferred Retirement Option Program are technically retired for benefit calculation purposes but still working. If a DROP participant dies, the designated beneficiary receives the accumulated DROP account balance. Whether a continuing monthly benefit also pays depends on the retirement option the member selected when entering DROP.11Florida Retirement System. Pension Plan – Deferred Retirement Option Program
A detail that catches families off guard: the Option 2 ten-year guarantee period begins when DROP participation starts, not when DROP ends. A member who was in DROP for five years and dies three years after leaving DROP has only two years of guaranteed payments left for the beneficiary.
Investment Plan Deaths
The Investment Plan is an individual account rather than a defined benefit, so a death benefit is the vested account balance rather than a monthly annuity calculation.12Florida Retirement System. Florida Admin Code 19-11.002 – Beneficiary Designations and Distributions
How the beneficiary must take that money depends on the relationship. A surviving spouse who is the sole beneficiary can keep the account in the deceased member’s name and take distributions over their own life expectancy, or roll the funds into their own retirement account. Non-spouse beneficiaries generally must distribute the entire account within ten years of the member’s death.12Florida Retirement System. Florida Admin Code 19-11.002 – Beneficiary Designations and Distributions
If no beneficiary was designated, or none survives the member, the account passes by default to the surviving spouse, then to surviving children, then to living parents, then to the estate. Ending up in the estate means probate and a loss of the tax-deferral advantages that make a retirement account valuable.
The Beneficiary Designation Controls
The beneficiary form on file with the FRS is what determines who gets the benefit. It overrides whatever a will or trust says. A member who named a first spouse twenty years ago, remarried, and never updated the form has left the first spouse as the person the FRS will pay. When a valid designation exists, the transfer happens directly between the FRS and the beneficiary, outside probate. When there is no valid designation, the benefit goes to the estate and through probate, which adds time, legal cost, and often a faster required distribution than a named beneficiary would face.
Health Insurance and Social Security for Survivors
Losing an active member’s health coverage adds pressure on top of everything else. Under federal COBRA rules, the death of a covered employee is a qualifying event that lets the surviving spouse and dependent children continue the same group health plan for up to 36 months.13U.S. Department of Labor. An Employee’s Guide to Health Benefits Under COBRA The employer must notify the health plan within 30 days of the death, the plan has 14 days to send an election notice to qualified beneficiaries, and survivors then have at least 60 days from the notice to elect coverage. COBRA premiums are typically the full cost of coverage plus a 2% administrative fee.
Survivors who also qualify for Social Security should know about a recent change. Before 2024, the Government Pension Offset reduced Social Security spouse and survivor benefits by two-thirds of the recipient’s own government pension, which often wiped out the Social Security benefit entirely for FRS retirees’ surviving spouses. The Social Security Fairness Act, signed in January 2025, repealed that offset for benefits payable after December 2023.14Social Security Administration. Government Pension Offset Survivors who were previously denied or reduced should contact the Social Security Administration to have their benefits recalculated.
On the tax side, FRS survivor benefits are subject to federal income tax, but death distributions from retirement plans are exempt from the 10% early withdrawal penalty that normally applies before age 59½, regardless of the beneficiary’s age.15Internal Revenue Service. Retirement Topics – Exceptions to Tax on Early Distributions A surviving spouse receiving a lump sum from the Investment Plan or a contribution refund from the Pension Plan can roll those funds into their own IRA within 60 days to defer tax.16Internal Revenue Service. Publication 590-B – Distributions from Individual Retirement Arrangements The Division sends a 1099-R each year showing the taxable amount of any continuing monthly payments.