Beneficiary Designations

Teachers’ Retirement System of the City of New York

Keep Your Beneficiary Designations Up to Date!

Do you know who your beneficiaries are for your TRS accounts? Log in and find out!

If you don't have beneficiaries on file, that means any death benefits would be payable to your estate—and subject to the bureaucracy and delays of probate. Making a designation provides TRS with clear instructions for paying benefits directly to whoever you name.

Once you have beneficiaries on file, be sure to review your list periodically, especially after life-changing events. Births, deaths, marriages, and divorces can change the way you want your benefits to be paid.

Who Can You Choose?

INDIVIDUALS: You can name a single beneficiary—or many beneficiaries who could share the benefits if you pass away. You can name "contingent" beneficiaries, who would receive payment if all of your primary beneficiaries predecease you. However, per-stirpes designations are not permitted.

For each beneficiary you designate, you'll need to provide either a date of birth or a Social Security number (or International Tax Identification Number for foreign nationals). The more information we have on file about your beneficiaries, the easier it will be to contact them when we need to.
TRUSTS: You can name a trust as a beneficiary. You’ll just need to provide a copy of the trust document to TRS; you can upload that while you are logged in.
CHARITIES: You can name a charity as a beneficiary. You’ll just need to enter the tax ID information (TIN).

Using The Online Beneficiary Feature

Our system includes checks and edits to ensure that designations are made correctly and benefits can be processed if they become payable. However, you are responsible for the accuracy of the information you enter (spelling of names, completeness of contact information).

CHANGING BENEFICIARIES: Until you retire, you can use the ADD and DELETE functions to designate and change beneficiaries as needed. After you retire, there may be some restrictions on changing beneficiaries, depending on elections you made at retirement. But even if you cannot change your beneficiaries, you can continue to update contact information for your beneficiaries at any time.
COPY BENEFICIARIES: If you participate in TRS’ Tax-Deferred Annuity (TDA) Program, you need to make separate designations for that account. Your TDA beneficiaries can be different from those you have designated under the Qualified Pension Plan. But if you want the beneficiaries under both plans to be exactly the same, you can use the convenient "copy" feature.
EQUAL SHARES: You do not have to designate a percentage of the benefit for each beneficiary to receive. If you are designating only one beneficiary, or want all beneficiaries to receive an equal share of the benefit, choose Equal instead of entering a percentage. See Help online for details.
CONFIRMATION: After you complete a beneficiary designation online, TRS will send you a complete list of your updated designations. Please notify TRS of any issues, or fix them online.