Every option in the Tier 2 and Tier 3 plan documents, and what each one actually pays the person you leave behind. Including the deadline that elects for you if you let it pass.
There is a clock on this decision, and most members do not know about it.
Before your pension is finalized, the Pension Fund gives you the estimated cost of each option. From the day you are told those costs you have 30 days to choose one. If you do not choose inside that window, the Maximum Retirement Allowance is granted automatically, and under the Maximum your pension stops when you die and your survivor receives nothing at all (Tier 2 booklet, p.23; Tier 3 booklet, p.20).
So doing nothing is not neutral. It is a choice, and it is made silently. In Tier 2 the booklet calls the election and the finalized pension generally irrevocable (Tier 2 booklet, pp.23 and 25). In Tier 3 the booklet says the one beneficiary named on Option 1 or Option 2 may not be changed (Tier 3 booklet, p.21). That is the single most useful thing on this page.
The lists below are the options as the Pension Fund's own June 2026 plan documents print them. Read the row for your tier. If you are not certain which tier you are, it is set by your date of appointment rather than by memory, and the pension calculator works it out from that date.
| Option | What your survivor receives |
|---|---|
| Maximum Retirement AllowanceMaximum | Nothing. The pension ceases and no payments are made to any survivor. |
| 100% Joint and SurvivorOption Two | The named beneficiary receives 100% of the monthly benefit for life. Only one beneficiary may be named, and that beneficiary may not be changed. If your beneficiary dies first: Payments continue at the reduced rate. No new beneficiary may be named, and all benefits cease on the member's death. |
| 50% Joint and SurvivorOption Three | The named beneficiary receives 50% of the monthly benefit for life. Only one beneficiary may be named, and that beneficiary may not be changed. If your beneficiary dies first: Payments continue at the reduced rate. No new beneficiary may be named, and all benefits cease on the member's death. |
| Lump SumOption 4 | A set lump sum, fixed at finalization. More than one beneficiary is allowed and they may be changed at any time. |
| AnnuityOption 4 (the booklet prints two items numbered 4) | An allowance the member specifies, payable for the beneficiary's life. Only one beneficiary may be named, and that beneficiary may not be changed. If your beneficiary dies first: Payments continue at the reduced rate. No new beneficiary may be named, and all benefits cease on the member's death. |
| 100% Joint and Survivor with Pop-UpOption 4-2 | The named beneficiary receives 100% of the monthly benefit for life. Only one beneficiary may be named, and that beneficiary may not be changed. If your beneficiary dies first: Payments revert to the Maximum Retirement Allowance. |
| 50% Joint and Survivor with Pop-UpOption 4-3 | The named beneficiary receives 50% of the monthly benefit for life. Only one beneficiary may be named, and that beneficiary may not be changed. If your beneficiary dies first: Payments revert to the Maximum Retirement Allowance. |
| Annuity with Pop-UpOption 4-4 | An allowance the member specifies, payable for the beneficiary's life. Only one beneficiary may be named, and that beneficiary may not be changed. If your beneficiary dies first: Payments revert to the Maximum Retirement Allowance. |
| Five Year CertainOption 5 | If the member dies within 5 years of retiring, payments run to the 5th anniversary of retirement and then stop. Dying later leaves nothing. |
| Ten Year CertainOption 6 | If the member dies within 10 years of retiring, payments run to the 10th anniversary of retirement and then stop. Dying later leaves nothing. |
| Option | What your survivor receives |
|---|---|
| Maximum Retirement AllowanceMaximum | Nothing. The pension ceases and no payments are made to any survivor. |
| 100% Joint and SurvivorOption 1 | The named beneficiary receives 100% of the monthly benefit for life. Only one beneficiary may be named, and that beneficiary may not be changed. If your beneficiary dies first: Payments continue at the reduced rate. No new beneficiary may be named, and all benefits cease on the member's death. |
| AnnuityOption 2 | An allowance of 90% or less, and not less than 10%, payable for the beneficiary's life. Only one beneficiary may be named, and that beneficiary may not be changed. If your beneficiary dies first: Payments continue at the reduced rate. No new beneficiary may be named, and all benefits cease on the member's death. |
| 5 Year CertainOption 3 | If the member dies within 5 years of retiring, payments run to the 5th anniversary of retirement and then stop. Dying later leaves nothing. |
| 10 Year CertainOption 4 | If the member dies within 10 years of retiring, payments run to the 10th anniversary and then stop. |
| 50% Joint and Survivor with Pop-UpOption 5A | The named beneficiary receives 50% of the allowance for life. If your beneficiary dies first: The allowance pops up to the Maximum, prospectively. |
| 100% Joint and Survivor with Pop-UpOption 5B | The named beneficiary receives 100% of the allowance for life. If your beneficiary dies first: The allowance pops up to the Maximum, prospectively. |
The option numbers are not the same in the two tiers. In Tier 2, Option Two is the 100% Joint and Survivor. In Tier 3, Option 2 is the Annuity. The same benefit also carries a different number in each tier: the 10 Year Certain is Option 6 in Tier 2 and Option 4 in Tier 3, and the 50% pop-up is Option 4-3 in Tier 2 and Option 5A in Tier 3. The Tier 2 list also prints two separate items both numbered Option 4 (Tier 2 booklet, pp.23-24; Tier 3 booklet, p.21).
In practice this means an unqualified "Option 2" in a conversation, an email or a form can mean two completely different benefits. Name the option, never only its number.
The headline percentage is what people compare, but it is usually not what matters most. What matters is what happens if your beneficiary dies before you do.
On a straight joint and survivor option, your pension continues at the reduced rate unchanged. You may not name a new beneficiary, and all payments stop when you die. You go on paying the reduction, for the rest of your life, for a benefit that nobody will now receive.
The pop-up variants behave differently. If your beneficiary dies first, the allowance reverts to the Maximum Retirement Allowance, so the reduction stops (Tier 2 booklet, p.24). The Tier 3 booklet adds that the change runs from the date of the beneficiary's death (Tier 3 booklet, p.21). That difference, rather than 50% against 100%, is usually the real substance of the choice, and it costs nothing to understand before you are sitting in front of the form.
You will not find "your survivor would receive $X" anywhere here, and that is deliberate rather than an omission.
Each option has a cost, and that cost depends on your age and your beneficiary's age at the time you retire (Tier 2 booklet, p.23; Tier 3 booklet, p.20). Neither booklet publishes the table the cost is worked out from.
Any figure we printed would be a guess you could not check, on precisely the number your spouse would be relying on, for a decision you may not be able to undo. The Fund gives you the estimated cost of each option before your pension is finalized, and from the day you are told those costs you have 30 days to choose. Those are the numbers to work from.
One thing the options do not cover. The Variable Supplements Fund payment is made to you as a retiree. It is not one of the options above and it does not continue to a survivor under any of them.
Ask the New York City Police 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 Co-Founder and Chief Investment Officer, leads that work at Sirmium. Your own household's answer depends on what else is coming in, who depends on the pension, and for how long, which is not something any web page can tell you.
If you want the rest of your picture first, the NYPD pension calculator estimates what the pension pays after federal tax, and the Pension Printout on that page puts the survivor mechanics next to your own figures. How the Snapshot works sets out where every number in it comes from.
The survivor decision sits next to everything else: what the pension nets after tax, what your deferred compensation has to do, and the years before Social Security starts. The calculator and the Pension Printout 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 New York City Police Pension Fund before acting.