Survivor Benefit Plan (SBP): what it costs and what it pays

The base amount

Everything in SBP is a percentage of the base amount. For a retiree who dies after becoming entitled to retired pay, section 1447(6) defines it as the monthly retired pay the person was entitled to when first eligible for it, or a higher amount later reached through an advance on the retired list or similar changes. Section 1447(6)(C) lets a participant designate a reduced base amount of at least $300, on or before the first day of eligibility for retired pay, with the spouse’s concurrence where 1448(a)(3) requires it; the finance office or the Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS) explains how that works for a specific case. The base amount is figured without regard to the reductions under 1409(b)(2) and 1415(b)(1)(B), and retired pay received as a lump sum under 1415(b)(1)(A) is not reduced by the premium (1452(a)(1)); the BRS lump-sum guide covers that option.

Because the base amount follows retired pay, it matters how retired pay was computed. The High-3 vs BRS guide shows how an E-7 retiring at 20 years reaches $3,059 a month under High-3 and $2,447 under the Blended Retirement System (BRS). The statute then applies the same SBP percentages to whichever figure applies.

What it pays: the 55% annuity

Section 1451(a)(1) sets the standard annuity for a spouse, former spouse or child at 55 percent of the base amount. A beneficiary who is 62 or older when becoming entitled gets an applicable percent that rose in steps and has been 55 percent for months after March 2008. Section 1451(e) keeps a Social Security–linked computation for certain beneficiaries who were in, or tied to a participant in, the plan on October 1, 1985; it applies instead if it is more favorable to the beneficiary.

Two details from 1451 are easy to miss:

• The monthly annuity, if not a whole dollar, is rounded down to the next lower dollar (1451(g)(2)).
• An annuity for a person with an insurable interest (a participant with no spouse or child) is 55 percent of the retired pay after the SBP reduction, not of the base amount (1451(b)(1)).

What it costs: the premium

Section 1452(a) is the cost rule for spouse coverage. For a standard annuity, a person who first became a member of a uniformed service on or after March 1, 1990, and who is retired under a provision other than the disability or non-regular-service chapters, has the retired pay reduced by 6.5 percent of the base amount. People who joined before that date, and those retired for disability or under the non-regular-service chapter, get whichever of two amounts is more favorable: the same 6.5 percent, or an older formula of 2.5 percent of the first $337 (adjusted since 1989) of the base amount plus 10 percent of the rest.

Other cost rules in 1452:

• Child coverage. If there is a dependent child as well as a spouse, the amount is increased by an amount set in DoD regulations. Child-only coverage also uses a regulation-set amount (1452(b)).
• Reserve component annuity. The 6.5 percent (or the older formula, whichever is more favorable) is increased by a premium set in DoD regulations (1452(a)(1)(B)).
• Insurable interest. Retired pay is reduced by 10 percent plus 5 percent for each full five years the designated person is younger than the participant, capped at 40 percent (1452(c)).
• No beneficiary, no deduction. The spouse reduction is not applied for any month with no eligible spouse or former spouse (1452(a)(3)).
• No refunds. Premiums already deducted are generally not refunded, with the exceptions in 1452(f).
• Paid up. Under 1452(j), no deduction is made for any month after the later of the 360th month of reductions and the month the participant turns 70.

Worked example: a $3,059 retired pay

Take the E-7 at 20 years under High-3 from the other guides: a base amount of $3,059 a month if full retired pay is the base, with spouse coverage and a first date of membership on or after March 1, 1990. All arithmetic uses whole-cent math.

The statute does not say how to round the premium to cents, so treat $198.84 as the arithmetic, not the amount DFAS deducts. The deduction on your own pay is what DFAS shows. Our military retirement calculator does not model SBP, so the premium and annuity figures are not from it; they are the statute’s percentages applied to the $3,059 base amount, which is the calculator’s High-3 figure.

The 360 months in the paid-up rule are 30 years of deductions; the later of the two tests (360th month or age 70) decides when they stop.

How the annuity changes

Cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs). Section 1451(g)(1) says that whenever retired pay is increased under section 1401a, each annuity is increased at the same time and by the same percent that the participant’s retired pay would have been increased. The base amount also rises at the same time and by the same percent (1451(h)). As of October 16, 2026, DoD and DFAS had not announced the retired-pay percentage for December 1, 2026, so it is pending and this guide shows no December 1, 2026 amount; the retired pay COLA guide explains the formula, that check and the 3.6% Social Security figure announced October 14, 2026.

When the annuity stops. Under 1450(b), a surviving spouse’s or former spouse’s annuity is paid while the person is living or, if the person remarries before age 55, until the remarriage. It resumes if that marriage ends (1450(b)(3)).

Who counts as a dependent child. Section 1447(11) defines it: unmarried, and under 18, or at least 18 but under 22 and in a full-time course of study or training, among other conditions. Section 1450 covers who is paid and when; the finance office or DFAS applies it to a specific case.

Disabled retirees and VA. Under 1452(g), a participant whose service-connected disability VA rates as totally disabling for a continuous period of 10 or more years (or at least 5 years from last discharge or release from active duty) may ask the Secretary concerned to discontinue participation. The written consent of the beneficiaries is required (1452(g)(2)). Ask DFAS before relying on this summary.

The DIC offset. The SBP annuity paid to a surviving spouse used to be reduced by Dependency and Indemnity Compensation (DIC) from VA. The text of 1450(c) now shows the offset phasing out through 2022 and, on and after January 1, 2023, the full annuity payable. Section 1450(m) still describes a Special Survivor Indemnity Allowance for survivors whose annuity is affected by the subsection (c) offset; the offset itself is now phased out. Whether DIC is payable at all is decided by VA.

Who must agree, and when

A married person eligible to provide a standard annuity may not elect out of the plan or choose less than the maximum spouse coverage without the spouse’s concurrence, with narrow exceptions in 1448(a)(3). Participation is the default: a person who is married or has a dependent child when becoming entitled to retired pay is in the plan unless they elect not to participate before the first day of retired pay (1448(a)(2)). A person with no spouse or child can name a person with an insurable interest in the retiree (1448(b)(1)). Section 1448(b) covers elections for a former spouse.

Because the election out of the plan becomes irrevocable once retired pay begins (1448(a)(4)), and later changes are limited to the cases the statute lists, questions about a particular case belong with the retirement services office, the finance office, DFAS or a military legal assistance office.

Next step

If you want the retired pay that SBP is figured from, open the military retirement calculator and read the monthly figure for your years of service and High-36. Then ask your retirement services office or DFAS what the base amount and deduction would be on your own record. Our site has no SBP calculator.