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Reporting a Member’s Death

When a member of Fresno County Employees’ Retirement Association dies, whether before or after retirement, there may be benefits available to a surviving spouse, domestic partner, minor child, or designated beneficiary(ies).  If you are a survivor of a FCERA member, it is important that you report the death to us as soon as practical.  The sooner we receive this information, the sooner we can begin the process of paying out potential benefits.

You can report a death to us by email, mail, or by phone.  Regardless of the method of notification, we will need to receive a certified copy of the member death certificate.

  • Report a death by email
  • Call us at 559-457-0681
  • Fill out this Request Form with the member’s name, date of birth, and last 4 of their social security number, if you know it, and mail it to us at

7772 N Palm Ave

Fresno, CA 93711

What happens next?

Once we receive a report of a member’s death, we will stop the next payment that the member was to receive.  We will then send a letter to the surviving spouse, beneficiary(ies) or estate of the deceased member outlining what we will need to move forward with a continuing benefit or lump sum payment.  In that letter, we may ask for the original death certificate or a certified copy.  You are not required to wait for the death certificate to notify us of a member’s death; in fact, we recommend that you notify us as soon as possible to prevent overpayment of benefits to a member’s account after death.

Anyone can report a member or retiree death, but we can only provide information about death benefits, continuing benefits, and member account information to named beneficiaries or their certified representatives.

If a member is retired when he or she dies, we will stop the payment of any outgoing pension benefits.  Survivors should be aware that any uncashed pension checks in a deceased member’s name must be returned to us.  We will automatically reclaim any direct deposit payments or portions of payments that went out after a member’s death.