The NYCERS beneficiary designation form tells the New York City Employees’ Retirement System who should receive your death benefit and accumulated contributions if you die. Download it from the NYCERS website or pick one up at the service center, complete it without any corrections, sign it in front of a notary, and mail the original to NYCERS at 30-30 47th Avenue, 10th Floor, Long Island City, NY 11101.1New York City Employees’ Retirement System. Contact The form on file at the time of your death controls the payout, so a current, valid designation is what keeps your benefit out of default distribution rules and probate.
What You Need Before You Start
NYCERS will not accept a form with erasures, white-out, or crossed-out text. One mistake means you throw the page away and begin on a clean copy.2New York City Employees’ Retirement System. NYCERS Beneficiary Designation Form Gather every detail before you pick up a pen.
For each person you intend to name, you need their full legal name as it appears on official documents, their relationship to you, their Social Security number, their date of birth, and their complete mailing address including apartment number and zip code.
If you are naming a trust, have the full legal name of the trust and its tax identification number ready. If you are naming your estate, you write “Estate” in the beneficiary name field. If any beneficiary is a minor, you also need to complete Form 137 for guardian information.3NYCERS. F134 – NYCERS Beneficiary Designation Form
Use the Form That Matches Your Tier
NYCERS uses different versions of the beneficiary designation form for different membership tiers. Tier 3, 4, and 6 members typically use Form F134 or F133.3NYCERS. F134 – NYCERS Beneficiary Designation Form The NYCERS website and service center stock the current versions. Using an outdated form risks rejection, so pull a fresh copy rather than reusing one you printed years ago.
Filling in Your Information and Your Beneficiaries
Start at the top with your own identifying information: your name, Social Security number, and NYCERS registration number. Then move to the beneficiary sections and enter each person’s or entity’s details in the spaces provided. Print or type clearly. Remember that any alteration voids the whole page.2New York City Employees’ Retirement System. NYCERS Beneficiary Designation Form
Primary Beneficiaries
Primary beneficiaries receive your death benefit first. You can name one person at 100 percent or split the benefit among several people by assigning each a percentage. The percentages for all primary beneficiaries combined must equal exactly 100 percent.3NYCERS. F134 – NYCERS Beneficiary Designation Form If you want three children to share equally, write 33.34 percent for one and 33.33 percent for the other two. Do the arithmetic yourself; do not leave it to NYCERS to figure out.
Contingent Beneficiaries
Contingent beneficiaries receive the benefit only if every primary beneficiary dies before you do. Their percentages must also total exactly 100 percent, calculated independently of the primary tier. Naming contingents is the step most members skip, and skipping it is what sends benefits into the estate when a primary dies first and no backup is on file.
Signing in Front of a Notary
Your signature must be witnessed and acknowledged by a Notary Public or a Commissioner of Deeds for the form to be valid.2New York City Employees’ Retirement System. NYCERS Beneficiary Designation Form Do not sign ahead of time. The notary needs to watch you sign so they can verify your identity, then add their own signature, commission information, and seal to the acknowledgment page.
New York State caps in-person notary fees at $2.00 per notarial act, and up to $25.00 for an electronic notarial act.4New York Department of State. Notary Public – Frequently Asked Questions Many banks, city agency offices, and union halls offer notary services free to members or customers.
Mailing the Form to NYCERS
Mail the original notarized form to NYCERS at 30-30 47th Avenue, 10th Floor, Long Island City, NY 11101.1New York City Employees’ Retirement System. Contact Send it certified with a return receipt so you have proof of delivery if a dispute later arises over whether a designation was on file. Keep a photocopy of the completed, notarized form and the mailing receipt with your personal records.
If you have a MyNYCERS online account, check it after a few weeks to confirm the update was processed. NYCERS also sends a written confirmation by mail. If nothing arrives, call NYCERS at (347) 643-3000 to verify receipt.
Naming a Minor Child
You can name a minor child as a beneficiary, but a child under 18 cannot directly receive pension funds. Check the box on the form indicating the beneficiary is under 18 and complete the guardian information on Form 137.3NYCERS. F134 – NYCERS Beneficiary Designation Form Without that guardian paperwork, a court may need to appoint a guardian before any funds can be released, delaying the payment your child would otherwise receive.
Some members name a trust instead and let the trust hold the money for the child. A trust lets you direct how the money is spent, so a lump sum does not simply land in the hands of a teenager the day they turn 18. If you name a trust, it must be a legally established entity at the time of your death. A trust that was dissolved or never properly created fails as a beneficiary, and the benefit falls to your contingents or to default rules.
When to File a New Form
Your most recent valid form controls who gets your benefit. An older designation stays in effect until NYCERS receives a new one, which means a form you filed 20 years ago could still govern a six-figure payout. There is no limit on how many times you can refile; each new valid form replaces the previous one. Review your designation after any major life change:
- Marriage. A new spouse does not automatically become your beneficiary.
- Divorce. New York law automatically revokes a designation in favor of a former spouse once the divorce is final, treating the ex-spouse as if they predeceased you. Relying on that automatic revocation is risky, because if the ex-spouse was your only primary and you named no contingent, the benefit drops into default rules. File a fresh form naming whoever you actually want.5New York State Senate. New York Estates, Powers and Trusts Law 5-1-4
- Birth or adoption of a child. New children are not added automatically.
- Death of a beneficiary. If your primary dies and you have no contingent on file, update immediately.
The automatic revocation on divorce does not apply to irrevocable designations, such as a joint allowance pension option selected at retirement, and it does not override a Domestic Relations Order assigning part of your retirement benefit to a former spouse as part of the divorce settlement. If you remarry the same person, the original designation revives. In every case, filing a new form is safer than relying on the statute to produce the result you want.
What Happens if You Never File
If NYCERS has no valid beneficiary designation on file when you die, the death benefit is paid under default provisions set by law. The benefit generally goes to your surviving spouse, and if there is no spouse, it may go to your estate.6New York City Employees’ Retirement System. Survivor Benefits, Receipt of Funds – Terms and Conditions Benefits that pass through an estate enter probate, a court-supervised process that can take months and generate legal fees your survivors have to cover. Filling out the form takes 15 minutes and avoids all of that.