Should I take the pension survivor option?
You must choose between taking a lower monthly payment to guarantee a survivor pension, or taking the highest payout and risking your spouse's financial distress if you die first. Fiduciaries often complicate this decision by using it as an opportunity to sell life insurance. This leaves people stressing over how to get the maximum income without leaving their partner unprotected should the worst happen.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
- 1Selecting the higher single pension payout and purchasing separate life insurance to cover the spouseDid this help you?
- 2Accepting a lower monthly pension payout that includes a joint and survivor annuityDid this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“I am stressing over this decision because I want the highest payment but don’t want to leave her in financial distress should the worst happen.”source ↗
“I’m at a crossroads with retirement options. I have a fully funded government pension at $10,500 a month. no survivor option $9,400 a month , wife gets pension if I die.”source ↗
“I’ve talked to fiduciarys and they agree but are trying to sell insurance.”source ↗
Where this came up
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