Designation of a beneficiary to receive retirement system death benefits
Estate of Kraut v City of New York, NYS Supreme Court, [not officially reported]
The Kraut case demonstrates the critical importance of a member actually filing a designation of beneficiary form with a public retirement system.
Although the New York City Employees’ Retirement System’s [NYCERS] records indicated that Kraut’s son Steven was his beneficiary, Gloria A. Djaha contended that NYCERS should have paid Kraut’s $268,000 [after taxes] death benefit to her.
Her argument: because Kraut had written “[t]he beneficiary whom I would nominate to receive the benefit payable after my death ... is my Financee [sic] ... is Gloria Anne Djaha on his retirement application form.”
But since Kraut never filed a formal Designation of Beneficiary form naming Djaha as his beneficiary, the court ruled that the son was Kraut’s lawful beneficiary.