Ask the Lawyer received the following question (paraphrased for easier reading and clarity) from a reader on a legal matter that might be of interest to the entire audience.
Q:
My father passed two years before retiring from FAA after working there for 26 years. I was 28 years old at the time. He divorced my mother when I was 13 years old and never remarried. I was named his beneficiary with 80 percent of his life insurance and a 100 percent beneficiary of his retirement. Since he passed away only two years prior to his retirement, I was told that I was eligible only for his lump sum and accumulated vacation time but not his pension benefits. It seems like there should be a percentage of his pension, not only a lump sum.
A:
Only surviving spouses are entitled to receive a pension.
Bill Bransford is managing partner of Shaw Bransford & Roth PC.
Disclaimer: Ask a Lawyer publishes information on this website for informational purposes only. Information on this website is intended – but not promised, guaranteed, or warranted – to reflect correct, complete and current developments. In addition, the contents of the website do not constitute legal advice and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the attorney. Information from this website is not intended to be used as a substitute for specific legal advice, nor should you consider it as such. You should not act, or refrain from acting, based on information on this website without seeking specific legal advice about your particular circumstances. No attorney-client relationship between you and Ask a Lawyer’s author is created by the transmission of information to or from this site.
2 Comments
Unless you have a disability that kept you as a legal dependent to your father. I am not sure of the criteria for this pension status for you … but … if your father maintained you on his taxes as a dependent (reguardless of your age) due to a disability you have, then you might want to ask questions with OPM about this … there is a program … if not, I would think it might be a hard sell. No matter what your disability status is, you can always ask questions. If you have a disability and you think you might qualify then don’t accept a payout until you know for sure what your options are.
I am not a lawyer or an expert in this area, I am not being paid to do this, so I have not researched it for you and as your mom and dad must have said, “you get what you pay for”, so don’t exect to recieve a lifetime income based on this comment. But as the line goes from Dumb and Dumber … “so your saying there is a chance” ….
When your high 3 or high 5 is calculated, is the income figured at the locality rate or just the regular GS rate?