Retiring isn’t one date. It’s a short process: an estimate, a first check that isn’t the full amount, a choice with a deadline, and then finalization. This lesson walks through it in order.
The short answer. Before your pension is finalized, the Fund tells you the estimated cost of each pension option. From then you have 30 days to choose, or “the maximum retirement allowance will be granted,” and under the Maximum the pension stops when you die, with no pension paid to a survivor. In Tier 2, until the City’s Chief Actuary certifies your pension you’re paid about 95% of the estimated final pension, and the difference comes later in one retroactive payment.
From the Fund’s Tier 2 and Tier 3 booklets, June 2026. What each option pays is laid out on our survivor options page, and the waiting period on our pension finalization page.
The Tier 2 booklet says “Option selection is generally irrevocable” (p.23) and that finalization is too (p.25). And on a joint-and-survivor option you name one beneficiary, who “may not be changed” (p.23). Under the Maximum, “the pension ceases upon the member’s death, and no further pension payments may be made to any survivors” (p.23).
Choosing between the options means weighing your income against what your family would have after you, so bring your household’s numbers. Lesson 13 covers the beneficiaries you name before you retire.
This lesson is general, not a recommendation for your own case. If you roll money into an IRA that we manage, we are paid on it. If it stays where it is, we are not. Confirm every figure and date with the New York City Police Pension Fund before acting.