Are you a Lockheed Martin employee married or partnered with another Lockheed Martin employee? Do you know how being dual Lockheed employees affects your decision on your pension survivor benefit? If not, then keep reading because you’re about to find out.
The pension survivor benefit was designed to allow a Lockheed employee’s surviving spouse or partner the ability to continually receive the pension of the deceased Lockheed Martin employee. The survivor benefit amount can range from 0-100% of the employee’s pension based on the option selected upon the employee’s retirement.
But what happens when both persons of the couple are Lockheed Martin employees? The answer is simple: only one person in the couple should select the survivor benefit and the other should select no survivor benefit, otherwise known as single life only. That’s because one person in the couple is going to die first, which means if they both selected a survivor benefit, then one of them is guaranteed to never receive it.
Which person in the couple should select the single life-only survivor benefit? Two primary variables to consider when making the decision are:
- Who has a longer life expectancy?
- Who is in better health?
If the answer to the above two questions is the same person, then typically, that person may be the best one to select the single life only. The other person with the shorter life expectancy would then select one of the survivor benefits.
To truly know the answer to this question for your specific situation, give us a call. We specialize in these situations and know how to truly analyze and plan for this.
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