STRS Ohio Active Teacher Death Benefits: Survivor Options Explained

A Different Path Than Retiree Deaths

When an active Ohio teacher in the Defined Benefit (DB) or Combined (CO) Plan dies before retiring, survivor benefits work nothing like the retiree path. Instead of a predetermined Plan of Payment, qualified survivors face a choice: take monthly pension benefits for life or accept a one-time lump-sum refund of the member's accumulated contributions.

This choice is irrevocable. Selecting the monthly annuity permanently forfeits the lump-sum refund, and vice versa. The decision also determines whether the family retains access to STRS Ohio health care coverage — monthly annuity recipients can qualify, while lump-sum recipients cannot.

Who Qualifies

Not every family member automatically qualifies for monthly survivor benefits. Under ORC 3307.66, "qualified survivors" are defined as:

• Surviving spouse
• Unmarried children under age 22
• Adult children adjudged physically or mentally incapacitated before age 22
• Dependent parents receiving at least 50% of their financial support from the member

The member must also have accumulated enough service credit. For members hired before July 1, 2013, the requirement is five years of qualifying service credit. Members hired on or after July 1, 2013 also need five years, but their death must have occurred within one year of their last contributing service. If a post-2013 member with five years of credit dies more than a year after leaving teaching, monthly benefits are off the table — only the account refund is available, unless the member had already met age-and-service retirement eligibility.

Three Benefit Formulas

STRS Ohio calculates the monthly survivor benefit under three different formulas and automatically applies whichever produces the highest payment.

Dependent-Based Benefit

This formula is available to all qualified survivors regardless of service credit length (beyond the five-year minimum). It calculates a percentage of the member's Final Average Salary based on how many qualified survivors exist:

When a spouse and children both qualify, the benefit is split: the spouse receives a fixed share (62.5% of the total for two survivors, scaling down as more children are added) and the children divide the remainder equally.

Service-Based Benefit

This formula becomes available when the member had 20 or more years of service credit. It often produces a higher benefit than the dependent-based formula for a sole surviving spouse:

Retirement-Based Benefit

This formula applies when the active member had already met age-and-service requirements for service retirement at the time of death. STRS calculates the benefit as though the member retired on the first day of the month following death and selected Plan II Option 1 — a Joint and Survivor Annuity with 100% continuation to the beneficiary.

For members with 32 or more years of service credit (the unreduced retirement threshold through May 2035) or who were age 65 with five years, this formula often yields the highest monthly benefit.

The Lump-Sum Alternative

Any qualified beneficiary can choose to waive monthly benefits entirely and take a one-time withdrawal of the member's accumulated contributions plus statutory interest. If the member had three or more years of qualifying service credit, STRS adds a 50% statutory match to the refund.

This is straightforward cash, but it permanently closes the door on monthly income and STRS health care access. The lump sum is subject to mandatory 20% federal tax withholding unless the beneficiary directs a rollover to a traditional IRA or eligible employer plan.

Making the Decision

STRS Ohio doesn't tell survivors which option to choose, and neither does the STRS Ohio Survivor Benefits Guide. What matters is understanding exactly what each path provides. Ask STRS to calculate the dollar amounts under each formula for your family's specific situation, then compare the lifetime value of monthly payments (plus health care eligibility) against the immediate liquidity of the lump-sum refund. A tax professional can help model the after-tax impact of each path.

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