(a) A designation of beneficiary must be in writing, signed and witnessed, and received in the employing office (or in OPM, in the case of a retiree, or a compensationer, or a separated employee) before the death of the designator.
(b) A change or cancellation of beneficiary in a last will or testament, or in any other document not witnessed and filed as required by this section, will not have any force or effect.
(c) A witness to a designation of beneficiary is ineligible to receive payment as a beneficiary.
(d) Any person, firm, corporation, or legal entity may be named as beneficiary.
(e) A change of beneficiary may be made at any time and without the knowledge or consent of the previous beneficiary. This right cannot be waived or restricted.
(f) A designation of beneficiary is automatically cancelled whenever a separated employee is paid the unexpended balance.
(g)(1) If the shares designated equal less than 100 percent, the undesignated portion will be paid according to the order of precedence provided in section 8424 of title 5, United States Code.
(2) If the shares designated exceed 100 percent, each designee's share will be in proportion to the share originally designated. Each share is computed by multiplying the percentage designated for that designee by a fraction whose numerator is 100 and whose denominator is the total number of percent designated.
Notes of Decisions
Cited in
6
cases (
2 in the last 5 years), 1998–2023 · leading case:
Hillman v. Maretta, 133 S. Ct. 1943 (2013).
Hillman v. Maretta, 133 S. Ct. 1943 (2013).
“" 5 CFR § 843.205 (e). In FEGLIA, as in these other statutes, Congress " 'spok[e] with force and clarity in directing that the proceeds belong to the named beneficiary and no other.”
Walsh v. Montes, 2017 NMCA 15 (N.M. Ct. App. 2016).
“(internal quotation marks and citation omitted); see 5 C.F.R. § 843.205 (e) (2016). By contrast, ERISA does not include a statutory order of precedence, and its regulations do not expressly prohibit the waiver or restriction of beneficiary designations.”
Metro. Life Ins. v. Pearson, 6 F. Supp. 2d 469 (D. Maryland 1998).
· cites it 2× “In addition, federal regulations enacted under FEGLIA provide that “[a] change in beneficiary may be made at any time and without the knowledge or consent of the previous beneficiary.”
Walsh v. Montes (N.M. Ct. App. 2016).
“(internal quotation marks and citation omitted); 10 see 5 C.F.R. § 843.205 (e) (2016). By contrast, ERISA does not include a statutory 11 order of precedence, and its regulations do not expressly prohibit the waiver or 12 restriction of beneficiary designations.”
Glenda Taylor v. Off. of Pers. Mgmt. (MSPB 2023).
“§ 8424 (d) (explaining that a designation must be signed and witnessed, and received by OPM prior to the employee’s death); 5 C.F.R. § 843.205 (setting forth these and other requirements for the designation) .”
Annotations are extracted automatically from the opinions in the
Syfert caselaw corpus and ranked by authority, recency, and
treatment. Dots show Syfertize treatment of the citing case itself.