28 U.S.C. § 376 — Annuities for survivors of certain judicial officials of the United States

(a) Definitions. "Judicial official" covers several kinds of federal court officers — Justices and judges of the United States, judges of the District^* Courts of Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the Virgin Islands, the Director of the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts (after filing a waiver), the Director of the Federal Judicial Center (after filing a waiver), the Counselor to the Chief Justice (after filing waivers), full-time bankruptcy judges and magistrate judges, and judges of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims — but only once that person notifies the Director of the Administrative Office in writing, within six months of taking office, marrying, or one of several listed law-enactment dates, that they want to be covered. "Retirement salary" means the specific kind of pay or annuity each of those officials receives after leaving active service, matched type by type to the office they held. A "widow" or "widower" is a surviving spouse married to the official for at least a year at death, or who is the parent of a child from that marriage. A "child" means an unmarried child under 18 (including adopted children, stepchildren, and recognized natural children who lived with the official as part of the family); an unmarried child 18 to 22 who is a full-time student (with a rule treating a birthday between July 1 and August 31 as falling on the next July 1, and allowing up to a five-month gap between school terms without losing student status); or an unmarried child of any age who cannot support themselves because of a disability that began before age 18, or, for a student, before their student annuity ended. A "former spouse" is someone married to the official for at least nine months. "Assassinated" and "assassination" mean a killing motivated by the official's performance of official duties, for the officials in categories (A), (B), (F), or (G) above.

(b) Contributions. (1) An official who files the notice described in (a) agrees to have 2.2% of salary and 3.5% of retirement salary deducted and withheld. Officials retired from regular active service, retired Court of Federal Claims judges, or officials recalled to service instead have only 2.2% of retirement salary deducted. (2) An official who is not immediately eligible for retirement salary, but who can get it later, must file a written notice within 90 days before leaving office to stay covered; doing so means agreeing to pay 3.5% of the future deferred retirement salary until it starts. Failing to file this notice counts as revoking the original election. (3) These withheld amounts go into the Judicial Survivors' Annuities Fund and are used to pay annuities, refunds, and allowances under this section. Paying the official their salary minus these deductions fully settles the government's obligations for that service, except for the survivor benefits this section (and related sections) provide.

(c) Extra funding for unfunded liability. (1) Additional money — capped at 9% of salary or retirement salary — is deposited into the Fund to bring its unfunded liability to zero. (2) "Unfunded liability" means the estimated shortfall, calculated yearly under 31 U.S.C. § 9503, between the present value of all benefits the Fund must eventually pay and the present value of future employee deductions plus the Fund's current balance. (3) Congress may appropriate whatever money is needed for this.

(d) Buying credit for past service. An official must deposit, with interest (4% per year through 1947, then 3% per year, compounded annually), 3.5% of any salary earned in a covered judicial office before they filed their election notice, and 3.5% of any pay earned as a member of Congress or as a federal "employee" (as defined in 5 U.S.C. § 8331(1)) before taking a covered office. Interest is not charged for periods when the official was out of all such service and not receiving retirement salary. Payments can be made in installments while still serving, on terms the Director sets, but the first installment must cover at least the last 18 months of prior service, and another installment is due at least every 18 months after that. If an official never finishes these payments, the prior service still counts toward eligibility, but the surviving widow's or widower's annuity is reduced by 10% of the unpaid amount — unless the widow or widower instead chooses to drop that prior service from the annuity calculation entirely, under subsection (k). No payment is required for honorable military service or for any other creditable service performed before August 1, 1920.

(e) Individual accounts. All amounts deducted under (b) and deposited under (d) are credited to an individual account in each official's name within the Fund.

(f) Investment. The Secretary of the Treasury invests any part of the Fund not immediately needed for benefit payments in interest-bearing U.S. securities or Federal farm loan bonds. The income from those investments becomes part of the Fund and helps pay the benefits described in subsections (g), (h), (m), (o), (p), and (q).

(g) Refund when no coverage continues. If an official leaves office without being eligible for retirement salary, or is eligible for deferred retirement salary but does not file the election required by (b)(2), their account balance — with interest (4% through 1947, then 3%, compounded yearly) minus 2.2% of the salary on which deductions or deposits were made — is refunded to them in a lump sum, normally within one year of leaving office.

(h) When and how much annuity is paid. (1) If a judicial official dies while in office, while receiving retirement salary, or after properly electing deferred coverage under (b)(2) — generally after completing at least 18 months of creditable civilian service with the required deductions or deposits actually made (or immediately, without that 18-month requirement, if the official is assassinated) — benefits are paid as follows: (i) a surviving widow or widower with no surviving child gets the annuity computed under subsection (l); (ii) a surviving widow or widower with children gets that same (l) annuity, and each child gets whichever is smallest of 10% of the official's average salary, or 20% of that average salary divided evenly among the children; (iii) if there is no surviving widow or widower but there are surviving children, each child gets whichever is smallest of what the widow or widower would have received divided among the children, 20% of average salary, or 40% of average salary divided among the children. (2) A widow's or widower's annuity under (i) or (ii) ends if they die or remarry before turning 55, subject to the restoration rule in subsection (w). (3) A child's annuity ends: at the end of the month the child turns 18 (for a regular child); on the following July 1 after turning 22, or when they stop being a full-time student, whichever comes first (for a student) — except that if the child becomes disabled while receiving that annuity, it continues without interruption as a disabled-child annuity instead of ending; when the child stops being disabled (for a disabled child); or at the end of the month the child dies or marries. (4) If a widow or widower receiving a (1)(ii) annuity dies (but not if they remarry), the children's annuities are recalculated and paid as described in (1)(iii). (5) If one child's annuity ends, the annuities of any remaining children are recalculated as if that child had never survived the official. (6) For an assassination death before 18 months of service, the annuities otherwise payable are reduced by the salary deductions that would have been taken over that 18-month period.

(i) Determining dependency, disability, and assassination. (1) The Director of the Administrative Office decides all questions about dependency and disability, subject only to review by the Judicial Conference of the United States, whose decision is final. The Director may order medical or other exams of a child annuitant or applicant at any time, and may suspend or deny an annuity if the child refuses to be examined. (2) The Director also decides whether a killing counts as an assassination, again subject only to Judicial Conference review; any federal agency^* investigating the killing must share information that helps the Director decide.

(j) Payments to minors or incompetent persons. If a payment under this section would go to a minor, or to someone found mentally incompetent or under another legal disability, it can instead be paid to their court-appointed guardian or other legal caretaker, rather than directly to them. The Director decides whether to pay the person directly or through the caretaker, and if no guardian has been appointed, the Director decides who is legally responsible for that person's care.

(k) Creditable years of service. In figuring a widow's or widower's annuity under (l), creditable years include: (1) years served in a covered judicial office, including years a retired Justice or judge continued to hold office; (2) years served as a Senator, Representative, Delegate, or Resident Commissioner before taking a covered office; (3) years of honorable active-duty military service before taking a covered office, except years already credited toward a different retirement or retired-pay system; (4) years served as a federal "employee" under 5 U.S.C. § 8331(1) before taking a covered office; and (5) years an official had deductions withheld from retirement salary under (b)(1) or (2). A "year" here means a full year plus twelfths of a month, rounding a fractional month of 15 or more days up to a full month and dropping a fractional month of fewer than 15 days. This subsection does not cancel the 10% annuity reduction under (d) for unpaid deposits.

(l) Annuity formula for widow or widower. The annuity equals the sum of: (1) 1.5% of the official's average annual salary — based on the three years of highest salary or retirement salary (or the whole period of service, if less than three years) — multiplied by the total of the creditable years counted under (k)(1), (k)(2), and (k)(3), the years counted under (b)(1) or (2), and up to 15 years counted under (k)(4); plus (2) three-fourths of 1% of that same average salary, multiplied by any remaining creditable years from (k) not already counted in (1). The total cannot exceed 50% of average salary, and cannot be less than 25% of average salary. This amount is then reduced by any penalty required under (d) for unpaid deposits, and by the amount of any annuity paid to a former spouse under (t).

(m) Cost-of-living increases. Whenever regular federal civil-service annuities under 5 U.S.C. § 8340(b) go up, annuities paid from this Fund go up by the same percentage at the same time.

(n) Payment schedule and non-assignability. Annuities accrue monthly and are paid on the first business day of the following month. They cannot be assigned, sold, or given away, and cannot be seized through execution, levy, attachment, garnishment, or other legal process — except as allowed for former-spouse annuities under (s) and (t).

(o) Lump-sum payment when no annuity is payable. (1) If an official dies while in office, on retirement salary, or after a deferred election, and either dies before 18 months of qualifying service, or dies after that but leaves no survivor entitled to benefits under (h) or (t), or all survivors' rights end before a valid claim is filed, the balance of the official's individual account (with interest, 4% through 1947 then 3%, compounded yearly) is paid in a lump sum, once a valid claim is made, in this order: first, to a beneficiary the official named in writing before death; second, to the widow or widower; third, to the children (and descendants of any deceased child); fourth, to the parents; fifth, to the executor or administrator of the estate; sixth, to whatever other next of kin the Director determines is entitled under the law of the official's home state. This payment bars any other claim, and for this purpose only, the Director may decide who counts as a widow, widower, or child without using the stricter definitions in (a). (2) This lump-sum rule does not apply if the official died by assassination and leaves a survivor entitled to (h) or (t) benefits.

(p) Shortfall payment. If all annuities based on an official's service end before the total payments made equal the balance of that official's account (with the same interest as in (o)), the difference is paid, once a valid claim is made, in the same order of precedence used in (o).

(q) Unpaid accrued benefits. If an annuity ends for a reason other than the annuitant's death, any unpaid accrued benefits go to that annuitant. If it ends because the annuitant died, the unpaid benefits go, once a valid claim is made: first, to the executor or administrator of the annuitant's estate; second, if there is none, after 60 days, to whoever the Director decides is legally entitled to it — and that payment bars any other claim.

(r) Other annuities not blocked. Nothing here stops a widow or widower from receiving this annuity at the same time as another annuity they qualify for under a different law, but the same period of service cannot be counted toward both annuities.

(s) Election for a former spouse. A judicial official with a former spouse may elect, under Director-prescribed procedures, to provide that former spouse a survivor annuity under (t). This election must be made at retirement, or within two years after the marriage ends in divorce, if later. The election is not effective if it conflicts with an earlier court order, decree, or agreement described in (t)(1), or if it would push the combined survivor annuities under (h) and (t) above 55% of the official's average salary. If the official is currently married, the election also is not effective without the current spouse's written consent — though the Director can waive that consent requirement if the spouse cannot be located or if requiring consent would be inappropriate due to exceptional circumstances.

(t) Former spouse annuity. (1) A former spouse of a deceased judicial official is entitled to a survivor annuity if, and only to the extent, an (s) election or a divorce decree, court order, or court-approved settlement expressly provides for one. (2) That annuity cannot exceed the difference between the maximum annuity a widow or widower could get under (l) (ignoring any reduction for a former-spouse annuity) and any amount already owed to another former spouse under an earlier election or court order. (3) The annuity's start and end dates follow the underlying order, decree, agreement, or election, except it cannot start before the day after the official's death or before the first day of the second month after the Director receives proper written notice, whichever is later, and it must end no later than the end of the month before the former spouse remarries before turning 55, or dies. (4) A later modification to the decree, order, agreement, or election does not count if it is made after the official retires and affects a (t) annuity.

(u) Assassination and other federal benefits. If a judicial official is assassinated, an annuity under this section is still paid even if a survivor also qualifies for benefits under chapter 81 of title 5 (federal workers' compensation) — but the surviving spouse's annuity is reduced so that the combined total from both programs in any year does not exceed the official's then-current salary for that office.

(v) Revoking the election. An official who is no longer married may revoke their (a) election in writing, by notifying the Director — but subject to any decree, court order, or agreement described in (t)(1). The official must also notify any spouse or former spouse of the revocation, following Director-prescribed rules, though the Director may waive that notice requirement if the spouse or former spouse cannot be located.

(w) Restoring an annuity after remarriage ends. If a widow's or widower's annuity under (h)(1)(i) or (ii) stopped because they remarried before age 55, it starts again at the same rate once that remarriage ends by death, divorce, or annulment — if the widow or widower chooses this annuity over any other survivor annuity they could get because of the remarriage, and if they return any lump-sum payment they received under (o) or (p) when the annuity ended.

(x) Buying extra service credit. Officials already enrolled in the Judicial Survivors' Annuities System as of the date the Judicial Survivors Protection Act of 2009 was enacted may purchase, in three-month increments, up to an extra year of service credit for each year of federal judicial service they completed. Officials who instead enroll during that Act's special open-enrollment period get the same option, but under the specific terms set out in section 4(a) of that Act.