Florida Retirement System (FRS), Division of Retirement
Florida · Public Pensions
dms.myflorida.com/workforce_operations/retirementState Public Pensions in Florida
The Florida Retirement System covers state agency, county, school district, state university, and many city and special-district employees. The Division of Retirement, within the Department of Management Services, takes death notifications and pays survivor benefits for the FRS Pension Plan; the State Board of Administration administers the Investment Plan.
Steps to take when someone dies
State Public Pensions in Florida: key facts
What Florida says4
- Reporting a death
A death can be reported to the Division of Retirement by telephone, in writing, or through FRS Online at frs.fl.gov. Investment Plan members contact the MyFRS Financial Guidance Line.1
Have the member's full name, Member ID, and date of death ready. The Division explains what benefits are payable and provides the application forms.1
- Death after retirement
What continues depends on the payment option the retiree chose at retirement. Option 1 pays no continuing benefit; the beneficiary receives only a refund of personal contributions that exceed benefits already paid.1
Option 2 continues the same monthly payment to the beneficiary for the balance of 120 months if the retiree dies within 10 years of retiring. Options 3 and 4 pay a continuing lifetime monthly benefit, but only to a beneficiary who qualifies as a joint annuitant.1
- Death before retirement
A vested member's beneficiary who qualifies as a joint annuitant may choose a lifetime monthly benefit, calculated as if the member had retired the month after death under Option 3 (reduced for early retirement if the member died before normal retirement age), or a refund of personal contributions.1
A non-vested member's beneficiary, or a beneficiary who is not a joint annuitant, receives only a refund of the member's personal contributions.1
- Payments after the date of death
If the member's bank did not accept the direct deposit or refused to cash the payment sent in the month of death, the estate is entitled to the retirement benefit issued at the end of the month of death.1
Any retirement benefit issued in the member's name and dated after the month of death must by law be returned or repaid to the Division.1
Governing law: Fla. Stat. 121.091(6) (optional forms of retirement benefits), 121.091(7) (death benefits); Fla. Stat. 121.4501 (FRS Investment Plan)
Retirement systems2
- FRS Pension Plan
Phone: 1-850-907-6500
Toll-free: 1-844-377-1888
- FRS Investment Plan
Phone: 1-866-446-9377
Florida public pension benefits
Florida Retirement System (FRS), Division of Retirement
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