Baldwin Financial, LLC

Oklahoma guide

Your will doesn’t control your federal benefits.
Your beneficiary forms do.

Tinker, the FAA’s Monroney Center, the VA, the IRS. Oklahoma City has a large federal workforce, and federal benefits follow their own rules. Your TSP, your FEGLI and your FERS survivor annuity pass by the forms on file with your agency or plan, not by your will or trust. If those forms are stale, a well-drafted estate plan can still send money to the wrong person. That’s a coordination problem, and it’s the part we help coordinate with you and your attorney.

Jeremy D. Baldwin

Written and reviewed by

Founder & Private Wealth Advisor, Baldwin Financial, LLC · Oklahoma City

Last updated

TSP

TSP: your beneficiary designation

The paper TSP-3 form is obsolete. You now designate or update TSP beneficiaries online in My Account, and the designation has to be on file before your death [F1, F2]. If none is on file, the TSP pays in this legal order: your spouse; then your children equally (a deceased child’s share goes to that child’s descendants); then your parents; then the executor or administrator of your estate; then your next of kin under your state’s law [F1, F3]. Marriage, divorce or remarriage does not update the designation automatically [F1]. Review it after a marriage, divorce, birth or death. If your trust is meant to be a beneficiary, your attorney should confirm how the trust is drafted for retirement accounts.

FEGLI

FEGLI: designation (SF 2823) and assignments

FEGLI also pays by designation or by the order of precedence. You designate on SF 2823, which your agency (or OPM, once you’ve retired) must receive before your death, signed in front of two witnesses [F4]. If no beneficiary is designated, no assignment is made and no court order is on file, OFEGLI pays: your widow or widower; then your children; then your parents; then your estate’s executor or administrator; then your next of kin [F5]. An assignment or a valid court order changes that order [F5]. Ask whether you still need the coverage you’re paying for, and whether it fits the rest of the plan.

FERS

FERS survivor annuity: decided at retirement

The survivor annuity election is made when you retire, and a spouse generally has to consent to a reduced or no survivor benefit. Under FERS, a full survivor annuity is 50% of your annuity and reduces your annuity by 10%. A partial one is 25% and reduces it by 5% [F6]. A married retiree’s spouse has to consent, before a notary or another official authorized to take oaths, to a partial or no survivor annuity [F6, F7]. This is one of the few estate decisions that’s hard to change later. Decide it on a calendar, not in a crisis.

Titling

Titling and everything outside the federal forms

Your home, brokerage accounts and bank accounts still pass by title, TOD/POD designation, or your will or trust. We help you review all of it with your attorney so the federal forms and the estate documents tell the same story. See how our estate planning coordination works.

The process

How this works

We gather your current designations, map them against your will or trust, flag the gaps, and bring that list to your estate attorney. The attorney drafts the documents. We own the beneficiary-coordination checklist; your attorney owns the estate documents.

Questions we get

Asked often enough to answer here.

Does my will override my TSP beneficiary designation?

No. The TSP says a will, prenuptial agreement, separation agreement, property settlement agreement or court order won’t override a beneficiary designation or the order of precedence. [F1, F3]

Do you draft wills or trusts?

No. Your attorney does, and we coordinate with them.

Can you help me file my federal retirement application?

No. That goes through your agency and OPM. We help you think through the decisions that go into it.

Sources

Sources

Retrieved October 28, 2026.

An invitation

Your forms and your documents
should tell the same story.

Schedule an Introduction Call (405) 266-7856

A complimentary conversation, by video, phone, or in person in downtown Oklahoma City, whenever suits you. Nothing to prepare and nothing to bring. Come as you are; leave knowing more than you arrived with.

What the conversation looks like

  1. 01

    You talk. What you own, what you owe, who depends on you, and whatever is coming up that you have not solved yet.

  2. 02

    We tell you what we see. The two or three things we would look at first, and why those and not the rest.

  3. 03

    You decide, on your own time. If we are not the right fit, we will say so and point you toward someone who is.

Or reach us directly

Meetings, by appointment
629 W. Main Street, Suite 10080, Oklahoma City, OK 73102
In person downtown, or by video
Serving
Oklahoma City, Edmond, Nichols Hills, and clients who have moved away

Educational only; not tax, legal, or accounting advice. Baldwin Financial, LLC does not practice law, does not prepare or file tax returns, and does not provide accounting services. Talk with your CPA or attorney about your situation.