§2071 Lump-sum payments

Summary

You can get your lump-sum credit if you leave the Agency for at least 31 consecutive days, are not moved into another government retirement system, file an application with the Director, are not working in a job covered by this retirement plan when you apply, and will not become eligible for an annuity within 31 days after you apply. If a former spouse is entitled to part of the lump-sum credit, the former participant’s payment will be reduced by that amount. A former spouse who was married to the participant for the entire period of the participant’s service gets 50 percent of the lump-sum credit unless a spousal agreement or court order says otherwise. If married for only part of the service, the former spouse gets a fraction of that 50 percent based on the days married during the service. Court orders about former spouses can change payments. Before paying a lump sum, the Director must notify the current spouse, any former spouse, and any former spouse with a court order, and the current spouse must give written agreement. When a lump-sum payment or unpaid annuity must be paid after death or when annuity rights end, payments go in this order: a beneficiary the participant named in a signed, witnessed form filed with the Director (a will does not count), then the surviving wife or husband, then children and descendants, then parents, then the executor or administrator of the estate, and finally other next of kin the Director finds legally entitled. If a former participant who could get a deferred annuity dies before age 62, payments follow that same order but are reduced by any share due to a surviving former spouse. If a survivor annuitant’s annuity ends for reasons other than death, any unpaid annuity goes to that person; if a survivor annuitant dies, unpaid amounts go to the executor or administrator, or if none, to next of kin after 30 days.