5 U.S.C. § 8418 — Survivor elections; deposit; offsets

(a) If you make a late election under section 8416(b) or (c), or section 8417(b) — one that has a 2-year deadline from some triggering event — you must deposit money into the Fund^*. The Office^* figures out this deposit to match what your annuity would have lost if the reduction had applied since you retired (or, for a section 8416(b) election, since your earlier reduction ended). The deposit includes 6 percent yearly interest.

(b) The Office must write regulations that collect this deposit by further reducing your annuity. That reduction is designed so its total value roughly equals the deposit you owe. But all deposit-related reductions together can never take more than 25 percent of your underlying annuity under section 8415 or 8452. This reduction starts at the same time as your section 8416 or 8417 election, is permanent, and keeps applying even if the marriage or the former spouse's entitlement later ends. It is separate from, and added on top of, the regular survivor^*-benefit reduction.

(c) Subsections (a) and (b) don't apply if you first elected an insurable-interest benefit under section 8420 for someone, and later elected a survivor annuity under section 8416(b) or (c) for that same person — as long as the earlier section 8420 election became void under section 8416(b)(3) or (c)(2) because of it.

(d) The Office must write regulations allowing a survivor of a deceased employee^* or Member^* to make this deposit too.