Designate Your Beneficiary

Designating a beneficiary is one of the most important things you can do for your loved ones. When you designate your beneficiary, you identify who is entitled to receive your benefits when you die. This ensures that TMRS benefits will be paid to the person you have named.

You should designate a beneficiary as soon as you are enrolled in TMRS. When you vest with TMRS, you must redesignate your beneficiary even if you don’t change who you name because prior beneficiary designations are no longer valid.
You can designate a beneficiary online using MyTMRS. If you don’t have a MyTMRS account, you can create one here. You can also complete a TMRS Beneficiary Designation Before Retirement form.
You can designate anyone as your beneficiary. Most common beneficiaries include a spouse, children, an estate or trust, or a charity. If you are married and want to name anyone other than your spouse, you may need your spouse’s consent.
You can designate a minor as a beneficiary. If you designate a minor, TMRS will pay the benefits to the parent or legal guardian, or you can designate a custodian for the minor.
You can change your beneficiary at any time. If a beneficiary dies or you divorce your beneficiary, your designation becomes invalid for that person. You should review your beneficiaries every year and after any major life event such as marriage, divorce, the birth of a child or a death.

Vesting with TMRS

Vesting is an important milestone in your city career: you have worked long enough to be eligible for a TMRS monthly retirement benefit for life and possibly the life of any designated beneficiary once you satisfy your city’s retirement eligibility requirements.

Your TMRS participating city determines the time required to vest. Most cities require five years of service, but a few require 10 years. Your service time with all TMRS participating cities can be combined, and you may be able to use time from other public employment to satisfy the vesting requirement. Your city’s vesting requirement can be found at City Plan Comparison.

Beneficiary designations made before you vested are no longer valid. Therefore, once you become vested, you must redesignate your beneficiary even if you want to designate the same person. It is very important that you redesignate your beneficiary(ies) because your beneficiaries can receive a TMRS monthly retirement benefit or other benefits if you die before retirement. You can designate a beneficiary online 24/7 using MyTMRS.

If you leave city employment after you are vested, you can leave your contributions in your TMRS account, and those contributions will continue to earn 5% interest every year until you retire.