The following surviving spouses are entitled to a widow’s annuity:

• the spouse of an employee whose death occurs while he/she was still in service;
• the spouse of an employee whose death occurs after the employee’s retirement on annuity, if the  marriage occurred before the employee withdrew from service;
• the spouse of an employee whose death occurs after withdrawal from service but before he or she went on annuity provided: a) that the employee did not take a refund of their contributions to LABF; b) the employee had at least ten years of service credit; and c) the marriage occurred before withdrawal from service.

Surviving spouses are entitled to a widow’s annuity for duty death when the death results from an injury incurred in the performance of any act of duty.  If the total credits toward a spouse annuity provide an annuity for life of less than $100 per month, a term annuity of $100 per month is paid instead for a limited period of time.

When a Widow’s Benefit Becomes Payable

A widow’s benefit begins upon the death of the employee.  This monthly benefit always begins on the first of the month following the date of the employee’s death and is payable for life unless the annuity is a term annuity.  A term annuity, as its name indicates, is payable for a given period of time.

Widow’s Annuity Calculation

Like an employee’s annuity, there are three methods used to calculate a widow’s annuity: Money Purchase Annuity, Minimum Formula Annuity, and Minimum Annuity.

1)  Money Purchase Annuity

The Money Purchase method uses the total amount of deductions withheld from your salary and the amount of City contributions that have been applied to your account, plus interest.  Currently, an employee has 1.5% deducted from their salary for the purposes of providing an annuity for their spouse.  The City contributions are 2% of salary.

The widow’s annuity amount depends upon the employee’s service, salary and age.  The spouse’s age is also considered in the calculation.  If an employee dies in service or after withdrawal from service but before attainment of the age necessary to receive an annuity, the spouse’s annuity will be based on the amount of employee contributions credited for employee and spouse annuity purposes with certain limitations.

If the retiree dies while receiving annuity, the widow’s annuity amount will depend upon the amount of the accumulated contributions for the spouse as of the date of the employee’s retirement.  The ages of the employee and spouse are utilized in this calculation.

2)  Minimum Formula Annuity

A spouse would receive a Minimum Formula Annuity if the employee dies in service or retires from service after reaching age 55 with at least 20 years of service or after reaching age 50 with at least 30 years of service. 

In Service Death

If the employee dies in service with at least ten years of service and ten years of marriage, the spouse will receive 50% of what the employee's annuity would have been at the date of death.  Neither the employee nor the spouse would be subject to age discounting.

Tier 1 Widow’s Amount

The amount of the Minimum Formula Annuity for a spouse is equal to 50% of the annuity the employee would have been entitled to had he or she retired from service on the day preceding their death or 50% of the annuity the employee was receiving on the date of death.  The widow’s  annuity will be discounted 0.25% for each month that the spouse is less than age 55 if the employee had less than 25 years of service or age 50 if the employee had at least 25 years of service.There is no Cost of Living increase for surviving spouses of a Tier 1 member.

Tier 2 Widow’s Amount

The amount of the Minimum Formula Annuity for a spouse is equal to 66 2/3% of the annuity the employee would have been entitled to had he or she retired from service on the day preceding their death or 66 2/3% of the annuity the employee was receiving on the date of death.  The spouses’ annuity will be discounted 0.25% for each month that the spouse is less than age 55 if the employee had less than 25 years of service or age 50 if the employee had at least 25 years of service.The widow’s annuity for a Tier 2 member is entitled to a cost of living increase. 

3)  Minimum Annuity

If an employee dies in service with at least five years of service, the widow’s minimum annuity will be $800 per month for life.  If the employee dies after retirement, the widow’s minimum annuity would be $800 per month if the employee had at least ten years of service.

Reversionary Annuity

The amount of the monthly reversionary annuity is determined by multiplying the amount of the monthly reduction in your annuity by a factor shown in the "Benefit Payable for Every $1 Reduction in the Employee’s Annuity" table in the Summary Plan Description.

This factor is based on the age of the employee and the difference between the age of the employee and the age of the reversionary annuitant as of the retirement date of the employee. In determining ages, months are disregarded.