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PBGC makes three distinct types of payments to beneficiaries.
Also, if you are entitled to or are receiving a survivor benefit when your plan ends, PBGC will continue to pay this benefit to you (adjusted for any guarantee limits) for the period provided by your plan.
Designating your beneficiary is very important, even if you have not yet begun to receive pension payments. You can find detailed instructions for naming a beneficiary or changing a previously named beneficiary with our online account service.
Participants receiving a pension benefit
PBGC pays survivor benefits if the benefit form you elected at the time you retired included a survivor benefit.
If you are receiving a joint-and-survivor annuity, you cannot change the beneficiary designation you made at the time you applied for benefits.
If your benefit is one that provides for survivor benefits to be paid after your death (as with a joint-and-survivor or certain-and-continuous annuity), the person named to receive those continuing benefits will receive any payments due to you at the time of your death. If your benefit does not provide survivor benefits, you may still name someone to receive any money that may be owed to you at the time of your death. If you do not name anyone, or if the person you name dies before you, PBGC will pay the amount owed to you in this order: your spouse, your children, your parents, your estate and your next of kin. See: Designate a beneficiary
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Participants not yet receiving a pension benefit
If you are married and die before you receive your first pension payment, PBGC will pay your surviving spouse a survivor benefit. Your spouse can begin this benefit as early as the date you would have been eligible to receive a benefit from PBGC.
You may designate a beneficiary for payments that PBGC may owe you at the time of your death, including certain lump-sum amounts (usually for small benefit amounts). See: Designate a beneficiary
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Even survivors can have beneficiaries
If you are eligible to receive payments as the beneficiary of a pension plan participant, it is important that you also designate a beneficiary. PBGC makes two distinct types of payments that your beneficiary could become eligible to receive.
You can find detailed instructions for naming a beneficiary or changing a previously named beneficiary with our online account service.
Once you call PBGC with this information, a letter will be sent by PBGC requesting a copy of the death certificate. If benefits are due, several forms will be sent for you to fill out.
If you have received payments issued to the deceased participant after the date of death, you should return those payments to the following address:
Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation
Insurance Operations Department
PO Box 62133
Baltimore, MD 21298-8457
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