Survivor Benefits

In addition to the emotional stress caused by the loss of a loved one, it can also put significant stress on a family’s finances, particularly when this occurs during the working years. To help ease this burden, PSRS offers valuable financial protection for your family if you die before retirement or while receiving PSRS disability retirement benefits.

The benefits payable depend on your beneficiary designation, your employment status and years of credit with PSRS.

Always keep your beneficiary designations with PSRS up-to-date to ensure benefits payable to your survivors are distributed according to your wishes. As an active PSRS member, you can update your beneficiary designation at any time using the Pre-Retirement Beneficiary Designation form. View the brochure, Protecting Those You Care About, or contact us for more information.

Three types of benefits are provided for beneficiaries of members who die before retirement.

• One-time, lump-sum refund of account balance,
• Monthly dependent-based benefits, or
• Lifetime monthly retirement-based benefits.

Specific qualifications must be met in order to receive monthly dependent-based benefits or lifetime monthly retirement based benefits.