Who Else is Eligible for Railroad Retirement Survivor Benefits?

Transcript:

Learn who else is eligible for the survivor benefit besides the spouse.

Welcome everyone to another edition of the Highball Advisors of Railroad Retirement Whiteboard. My name is John McNamara at Highball Advisors. Today what we're going to talk about is the survivor benefit. So I've done quite a few videos and you can see them on the spousal portion of the survivor annuity and how very important that is. But also there's other family members that are eligible for the survivor benefit. So I thought I'd do a video on who else is eligible for the survivor benefit in case something unfortunate happens to the railroader, the annuity.

So first of all, first one up is unmarried children under the age of 18. Any child under the age of 18 can be available for the survivor annuity. Then secondly is any unmarried child age 18 who is still in school up to the age of 19. So if something happens, they're still in school, maybe college or a trade school or something and they're 18 years old, can still get the survivor benefit so that they can complete that year of schooling, I guess, is the thought behind that. Although price of school, that's another whole topic.

Then the next one up is unmarried child over the age of 18 who is disabled before the age of 22. So let's say if a child has a disability of some kind and maybe it doesn't get diagnosed till the child is 19, 20, 21, that's fine. You could still get that survivor benefit. Just to be clear, that goes in forever. As long as that child's constantly being diagnosed as disabled. That survivor benefits well past 22. Then obviously before even 18, that would fall under the child under the age of 18. So they have that covered. So it's basically disabled before the age of 22.

Okay, next one up is unmarried dependent grandchild if both parents are deceased or disabled. So if you're taking care of your grandkids, the parents have passed away or are classified disabled, then the children would be eligible for the survivor benefit. Once again, assuming under the age of 18, those rules would kick in up there. No doubt about that.

Then the next one is parents age 60 and above who's dependent upon the railroader for at least half of the parents' support. So if you're supporting your parents with your income, has to be half of it and they can document that, then they're eligible for the survivor benefit. However, please note down here below, if the railroader is also survived by their widow or widower or a divorce surviving spouse or the child, then the parent would only be eligible for to the social security, what they would pay, which would basically be coming out of the tier one portion, that's equal to social security. So that's what they would pay. So I hope you found this helpful.

Another thing to remember also is for the divorced spouses there, the child of a divorced spouse is not covered on a survivor benefit. So please be aware of that. They don't really put that in there, but they wouldn't be covered with the survivor benefit. So that's something to plan for there also.

So I hope you found this helpful. Really good stuff here. You should know this just in case unfortunately, if something ever happens, I guess we will all eventually happen to all of us, but if it happens, you'll have the information. So feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions. I'll get back to you on that. I have the boarding for railroad retirement process for those railroaders at or near retirement. Good stuff there. Click on the YouTube channel, the notification bell, please, like this video. All that stuff really helps grow the channel, spreads it to other railroads, get a lot of great feedback from railroads that they appreciate this. So it's all good. All right, so until next time, everyone, please stay safe, stay on track, and take care. So long everybody. Bye.

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