Every option in the Fund's own plan documents, and what each one actually pays the person you leave behind. Including a deadline that applies to one tier and is not written down for the other.
The deadline is not the same for every FDNY member, and that is the thing to get right.
Tier 3 Enhanced: the Summary Plan Description says you must elect an option within 30 days of your retirement date, or the Maximum Retirement Allowance is granted. Under the Maximum your pension stops when you die and your survivor receives nothing. Note where the clock starts: your retirement date, not the day the Fund hands you the costs.
Tier 1 and Tier 2: the Pension Manual chapter for your tiers does not state an election deadline at all. What it does state is that once you have received your first full pension check, the option cannot be changed. That is not the same as having no deadline, and we are not going to tell you that you have none. Ask the Fund when your own window opens and closes, and ask early.
In both cases the election is effectively permanent once the pension is finalized, so this is worth understanding before you are sitting in front of the form rather than after.
The lists below are the options exactly as the Fund's own documents set them out. Read the list for your tier. Your tier is set by your date of membership: Tier 2 runs from 1 July 1973 through 30 June 2009, and Tier 3 begins on 1 July 2009.
| Option | What your survivor receives |
|---|---|
| Maximum Retirement AllowanceNo option | Nothing. The pension ceases and no payments are made to any survivor. |
| Joint and 100% SurvivorOption 2 | The named beneficiary receives 100% of the reduced allowance for life. Only one beneficiary may be named and may not be changed. If your beneficiary dies first: Payments continue at the reduced rate. No new beneficiary may be named, unless the Pop-Up modification was elected. |
| Joint and 50% SurvivorOption 3 | The named beneficiary receives 50% of the reduced allowance for life. Only one beneficiary may be named and may not be changed. If your beneficiary dies first: Payments continue at the reduced rate. No new beneficiary may be named, unless the Pop-Up modification was elected. |
| Lump SumOption 4 | A limited lump sum the member specifies when the option is chosen. More than one beneficiary is allowed and they may be changed at any time. |
| AnnuityOption 4 (the chapter prints two items numbered 4) | A specified annual annuity the member pre-determines. Only one beneficiary may be named and may not be changed. |
| Five-Year CertainTier 2 only | If the member dies within five years of retiring, the benefit is paid to the beneficiary, either as a lump sum or monthly for the rest of the five years. Dying later leaves nothing. If your beneficiary dies first: A lump sum is paid to the member's estate on the member's death. The beneficiary may be changed at any time under this option. |
| Ten-Year CertainTier 2 only | If the member dies within ten years of retiring, the benefit is paid to the beneficiary, either as a lump sum or monthly for the rest of the ten years. If your beneficiary dies first: A lump sum is paid to the member's estate on the member's death. The beneficiary may be changed at any time under this option. |
| Pop-Up modificationApplied to another option, at extra cost | Whatever the underlying option pays. The Pop-Up is not an option on its own: the chapter allows it only on Option 2, Option 3 and Option 4 annuities, and it carries an extra cost. If your beneficiary dies first: The allowance reverts to the Maximum Retirement Allowance. |
| Option | What your survivor receives |
|---|---|
| Maximum Retirement AllowanceNo option | Nothing. The pension ceases and no payments are made to any survivor. |
| 100% Joint and SurvivorOption One | The named beneficiary receives 100% of the monthly benefit for life. Only one beneficiary may be named and may not be changed. If your beneficiary dies first: Payments continue at the reduced rate. No new beneficiary may be named, and benefits cease on the member's later death. |
| 90% or less Joint and SurvivorOption Two | The named beneficiary receives an allowance of 90% or less, in steps of not less than 10%, for the beneficiary's life. Only one beneficiary may be named and may not be changed. If your beneficiary dies first: Payments continue at the reduced rate. No new beneficiary may be named, and benefits cease on the member's later death. |
| 5 Year CertainOption Three | If the member dies within five years of retiring, the benefit runs to the 5th anniversary of retirement and then stops. Dying later leaves nothing. |
| 10 Year CertainOption Four | If the member dies within ten years of retiring, the benefit runs to the 10th anniversary of retirement and then stops. |
| Joint and Survivor with Pop-UpOption Five | The named beneficiary receives either 50% or 100% of the allowance for life, as elected. If your beneficiary dies first: The allowance pops up to the Maximum Retirement Allowance, as if no option had been chosen. |
Two notes on the lists above. The Tier 1 and Tier 2 chapter also prints an Option 1, but restricts it to Tier 1 members appointed before 1 July 1973, so it reaches nobody in Tier 2 and it is left out above. The Five-Year and Ten-Year Certain options are restricted to Tier 2 members appointed after 1 July 1973, which is every Tier 2 member, so both are included.
The Tier 3 list is transcribed from the Summary Plan Description for Tier 3 Enhanced members, which is what that document covers by its own first sentence. If you are in plain Tier 3 or Tier 3 Modified, which are the Fund's own names for the cohorts before that, confirm your own option set with the Fund rather than assuming it matches.
This is the practical trap, and it is worse at FDNY than most people expect, because the same number means different things in four places.
Inside FDNY, Option 2 is the Joint and 100% Survivor if you are Tier 1 or Tier 2, and a 90%-or-less Joint and Survivor if you are Tier 3 Enhanced. The Tier 1 and Tier 2 chapter also prints two separate items both numbered Option 4, one a lump sum and one an annuity, with different beneficiary rules. And none of the FDNY numbers line up with the NYPD ones, so a conversation between a firefighter and a police officer comparing "Option 2" is comparing two different benefits.
Name the option. Never rely on the number alone, in a conversation, in an email, or on a form.
The headline percentage is what people compare. What usually matters more is what happens if your beneficiary dies before you do.
On a straight joint and survivor election, your pension continues at the reduced rate unchanged. You may not name a new beneficiary, and everything stops when you die. You go on paying the reduction, for life, for a benefit nobody will now receive.
The Pop-Up is what changes that: if your beneficiary dies first, the allowance reverts to the Maximum Retirement Allowance going forward. At FDNY the Pop-Up works differently in the two tiers, and this is a real structural difference rather than a wording one. For Tier 3 Enhanced it is its own numbered option, Option Five, at either 50% or 100%. For Tier 1 and Tier 2 it is a modification you apply on top of another option, allowed only on Option 2, Option 3 and Option 4 annuities, and it carries an extra cost.
This one is easy to miss and it is worth knowing, because it is money.
A spouse receiving a benefit under a joint and survivor option receives half the cost-of-living adjustment you would have received had you lived. The Tier 1 and Tier 2 chapter applies that to Options 2 and 3, to the Option 4 annuity, and to any Pop-Up option. So the survivor benefit is not simply frozen at the day you die; part of the inflation protection carries over.
Worth reading alongside how the FDNY COLA works generally: it begins at 62 for service retirees, it is half the change in the consumer price index with a floor of 1% and a ceiling of 3%, and it applies only to the first $18,000 of the annual allowance.
You will not find "your survivor would receive $X" anywhere here, and that is deliberate.
Both FDNY documents say the reduction depends on the option you choose, your age, and in the joint-and-survivor cases your beneficiary's age at retirement. The pension is finalized after certification by the New York City Office of the Actuary. Neither document prints a factor table, or the mortality tables sitting behind one.
So any figure we printed would be a guess you could not check, on precisely the number your family would be relying on, for a decision that is effectively permanent. The Fund presents you with the estimated cost at or before retirement. Those are the real numbers, and they are the ones to work from.
Ask the NYC Fire Pension Fund:
Then the trade-off itself is a conversation for a licensed adviser, once the Fund has given you real numbers to compare. William Harrison, our Founder and Chief Investment Officer, leads that work at Sirmium. What fits your household depends on what else is coming in, who depends on the pension, and for how long, and no web page can answer that.
One thing outside the pension entirely: your deferred compensation account passes by beneficiary designation, not through these options and not through your will. It is worth checking that the name on it is still the one you would choose.
If you want the rest of your picture, the FDNY calculators cover the pension, the Variable Supplements Fund and the 457(b) decisions, and the NYPD version of this page sets out that Fund's very different option numbering if you are comparing notes with someone on the police side.
The survivor decision sits next to everything else: what the pension pays after tax, what the Variable Supplements Fund adds, what your 457(b) has to do, and the years before Social Security starts. The FDNY calculators cover all of it on your own numbers.
Educational information only. Not investment, tax or legal advice, not a recommendation, and not a guarantee. Confirm every figure and every date with the NYC Fire Pension Fund before acting.