Determining Your Beneficiaries:

The number and types of beneficiaries you have depends primarily on your employment status and eligibility for MOSERS benefits. Identify your status from the descriptions below:

• Actively employed as a state employee
• Inactive-vested (worked long enough to earn a future pension benefit but no longer employed by the state and not yet retired)
• Retired

ACTIVE: You may have beneficiaries for life insurance (if provided through MOSERS) and/or employee contributions (if you are a member of MSEP 2011 or the Judicial Plan 2011). If you participate in MO Deferred Comp, you also have beneficiaries for funds in your supplemental savings plan.

INACTIVE-VESTED: You may have beneficiaries for employee contributions (if you are a member of MSEP 2011 or the Judicial Plan 2011). However, you won’t make decisions about your future MOSERS defined benefit pension benefits, including those about survivor beneficiaries, until you apply for retirement. If you still have an account with MO Deferred Comp, you also have beneficiaries for funds in your supplemental savings plan.

RETIRED: You may have beneficiaries for life insurance (if provided through MOSERS and you retained life insurance coverage in retirement) and/or employee contributions (if you are a member of MSEP 2011 or the Judicial Plan 2011). If you still have an account with MO Deferred Comp, you also have beneficiaries for funds in your supplemental savings plan. You may change the above beneficiaries at any time. You are allowed to change your survivor beneficiaries for your MOSERS defined benefit pension only under the following circumstances:

• You were married at retirement, elected a joint & survivor benefit payment option and your spouse passes away. See more information about reporting a death.
• You were married at retirement, elected a joint & survivor benefit payment option and you get divorced after retirement. Go to the Life Events page and scroll down to Divorce.
• You were single at retirement, elected the Life Income Annuity benefit payment option and then got married. Go to the Life Events page and scroll down to Marriage.
• You elected one of the “life income with guaranteed payments” benefit payment options at retirement and want to change your beneficiary(ies).

How to Designate a Beneficiary:

Log in to myMOSERS and go to Forms. If any of the above apply to you, you will see the forms to update your beneficiaries for Life Insurance and Contribution beneficiaries. You may designate a person, trust, organization, or estate as beneficiary.

The designation will become effective when the signed, dated form is received at MOSERS during your lifetime. Once you submit the requested information, your primary beneficiary designation will be listed on your Annual Benefit Statement and in myMOSERS.

If you still have questions, please contact a MOSERS benefit counselor at mosers@mosers.org, (800) 827-1063 or (573) 632-6100.

Primary and Contingent Beneficiaries:

Primary Beneficiary - The person(s) or organization(s) who will be recognized first to receive your life insurance proceeds or any remaining employee contributions.
Contingent Beneficiary - The alternative beneficiary(ies) who will receive your life insurance proceeds or employee contributions in the event your primary beneficiary(ies) does not survive you.

If you participate in MO Deferred Comp, which is a supplemental savings plan separate from your MOSERS defined benefit pension plan, you may update your beneficiaries with MO Deferred Comp, on their website.