Death of Member Before Retirement

My age is 58 and i have worked for the state 20 years. My question is if i died before i retired well my spouse receive my pension? My normal retirement is 1/1/2020.

Yes, if you are an active general state employee, married, vested in MOSERS, and die before you retire with MOSERS, your eligible surviving spouse will receive survivor benefits. If you have no surviving spouse, we will pay survivor benefits to your natural or legally adopted child(ren) younger than age 21. If you die without any eligible beneficiaries, no survivor benefits will be paid. These benefits would be payable in the month following your death.

The monthly benefit for your spouse will be based on the benefit you have accrued as of your date of death. We will calculate it according to the Joint & 100% Survivor Option. We will pay monthly survivor benefits for the remainder of your spouse's lifetime. You can find information regarding the death of a member on our website. Survivors should contact a MOSERS benefit counselor for guidance through the process.

An exception to this: The “immediate” survivor benefit provision is not available for terminated-vested members of MSEP 2011 who were first employed on or after January 1, 2018. This change was in SB62 during the 2017 legislative session. It is a cost offset for the reduction in the vesting requirement from 10 years to 5 years for members of MSEP 2011. Eligible survivors of such members will begin receiving benefits when the deceased member would have attained normal retirement age.

Members often have similar questions about death AFTER retirement. A key feature of your MOSERS defined benefit (DB) pension plan is that it can provide financial security for your eligible survivor(s) as well. During the retirement process, you will make elections to determine if any potential survivor benefits will be paid to anyone after your death or not – to a spouse if you are married, or, potentially, to another beneficiary.