ACTIVE: BENEFICIARY FYI
Keep Your Beneficiary Information Current
It’s important to have a Beneficiary Designation Form on file with LACERA and to make sure LACERA has the most current contact information on your designated beneficiary(ies). In the event the unthinkable happens, the information will be helpful to LACERA — and your beneficiary — should it be necessary for LACERA to pay death benefits on your behalf.
New County employees are asked to complete a Beneficiary Designation Form in conjunction with their election of a LACERA retirement plan. The form designates who the employee would like to receive any death benefits that maybe payable should he or she die while in County service.*
Some active members, depending on how long ago they were hired and which LACERA retirement plan they elected, may not have completed a Beneficiary Designation Form. Or even if they did, the information on the form may no longer be current.
If you have any minor children (including adoptions), it’s also important to submit their original certified birth certificates to LACERA to keep on file. (LACERA will image the document and return it to you.) This will ensure LACERA is aware of any minor children who could become eligible for benefits.**
Where to Find Your Beneficiary Information
You can view your beneficiary information online on My LACERA. The information also appears on the Annual Benefit Statement (ABS) LACERA mails you each year in the month following your birthday. You can make changes to the beneficiary information on your ABS by marking the changes on the page and mailing the corrected page to LACERA in the envelope provided.
You can also adjust your beneficiary information over the phone by calling 1-800-786-6464.
Issues to Consider Prior to Retirement
Only Option 1 (not available in Plan E) offers full flexibility to change your beneficiary at any time. This is because Option 1 provides any named beneficiary with a lump-sum benefit (equal to the remaining balance of the member’s accumulated contributions), rather than a monthly survivor allowance. The beneficiary is only paid in the event the total retirement allowance received by the member during his or her retirement did not equal or exceed the member’s accumulated retirement contributions.
Since it does not provide a continuing allowance, the age of the parties is not a factor.
Most Retirement Options offered by LACERA retirement plans do not permit you to change your beneficiary after retirement. This is because most of the Options (Unmodified + Plus and Options 2, 3, and 4) provide a reduced allowance during the member’s lifetime and a percentage of that allowance to the eligible beneficiary upon the member’s death. At retirement, LACERA’s actuaries use both the age of the member and the designated beneficiary in calculating the amount of the reduction to the member’s allowance.
Exceptions
Under the Unmodified Option, a retired member may name his or her eligible spouse, domestic partner, or minor child to receive a monthly survivor allowance upon his or her death. If the member’s eligible survivor predeceases him or her, the member may name a new beneficiary. In such case, the new beneficiary will receive any remaining portion of the member’s accumulated contributions. The new beneficiary will not be eligible for a continuing allowance.
Beneficiary Eligibility for Retiree Healthcare
Upon the death of a LACERA retiree, any survivor or beneficiary who is receiving a continuing monthly allowance from LACERA and who qualifies as an eligible surviving dependent (as defined in LACERA‘s Retiree Healthcare Administrative Guidelines) is generally eligible to enroll in LACERA-administered healthcare coverage.***
When an eligible survivor notifies LACERA of a member’s death, LACERA mails a healthcare benefits information packet to the survivor. The packet includes information on benefits and premium rates, along with an enrollment form. To avoid late enrollment rules, the survivor must notify LACERA within 30 days of the member’s death.
It’s important to keep in mind that survivors or beneficiaries who are not receiving a continuing monthly allowance are not eligible to enroll in a LACERA-administered health plan. However, survivors and dependents who had continuous coverage under the decedent’s LACERA-administered health plan, but are not eligible for a continuing monthly allowance, may apply for continued healthcare benefits (for a maximum of 36 months) under the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA).
*Pre-retirement (active member) death benefits are included in all LACERA contributory retirement plans (Plans A, B, C, and D). They are not included in non-contributory Plan E. The surviving spouse or domestic partner of an active Plan E member may be eligible to receive benefits through the County‘s Long-Term Disability and Survivor Benefit Plan.
**Surviving minor child(ren) are eligible for survivor allowances only when there is no surviving spouse or domestic partner. Survivor allowances to an eligible minor child continue until the child is no longer eligible.
***Member’s surviving spouse, domestic partner, minor child(ren), or disabled dependent children who meet prescribed eligibility requirements.
11/10/11
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Want to Change Your Beneficiary Info?
- Call LACERA at
1-800-786-6464 to change by phone - Get the form on the Brochures & Forms page of lacera.com
