Changes in Your Family Status: Birth or Adoption of a Child

If you have submitted a Designation of Beneficiary form and named beneficiaries, it is important to review your designation from time to time to ensure that your TSP account will be paid out according to your wishes.

The TSP will honor only beneficiaries named on Form TSP-3 if you submitted the form.

For example, if you had named one child as a beneficiary on your Designation of Beneficiary form, but forgot to update your form upon the birth or adoption of your second child, only the child named on the form would receive benefits from your TSP account, even if you had a will naming both children as your beneficiaries.

If you have not submitted a Designation of Beneficiary form to name specific beneficiaries, your TSP account will be paid out, in the event of your death, according to the standard order of precedence; that is, to your spouse, and if none, to your child or children, etc.