Under the new pension law, survivor's pension before your retirement date is purely insurance, not a savings pot.
That means your partner only receives a payment if you die while employed. Leave employment and cover continues for a standard three months, then lapses.
For someone on €50,000 with 50% cover, that's €25,000 a year for life to the partner. In capital terms, €625,000 disappears.
That isn't a detail. It's the most important change for anyone changing jobs, taking a sabbatical, going self-employed or stopping work early.
What exactly changed
Before the new law, arrangements varied widely. Survivor's pension could be accrual-based, building an entitlement that remained if you left, or risk-based, meaning insurance.
Under the new law it's standardised:
| Old situation | New situation | |
|---|---|---|
| Form | Accrual or risk basis | Risk basis only |
| Amount based on | Years of service and pension base | Percentage of your salary |
| On leaving employment | Accrued entitlement remained | Lapses after the run-off period |
| Orphan's pension until | Varied, up to 30 | Always until 25 |
The standardisation is itself an improvement: the rules are clearer and someone briefly employed has the same cover as a colleague with thirty years' service. That wasn't previously the case.
But there's a downside, and it's substantial.
The amounts
Partner's pension is a percentage of your pensionable salary. The fiscal maximum is 50%; what your scheme does may be lower. Some funds use 30%.
| Salary | At 30% | At 40% | At 50% |
|---|---|---|---|
| €40,000 | €12,000 | €16,000 | €20,000 |
| €50,000 | €15,000 | €20,000 | €25,000 |
| €60,000 | €18,000 | €24,000 | €30,000 |
| €80,000 | €24,000 | €32,000 | €40,000 |
Orphan's pension is at most 20% per child, or 40% if both parents have died, running until the child turns twenty-five.
Importantly: no deductible is applied any more, and years of service no longer count. Only your salary matters.
What's at stake
Translated into capital, because that makes the scale clear. A lifelong payment to your partner, at a 4% return, is worth:
| Salary €50,000, cover | Per year | Capital value |
|---|---|---|
| 30% | €15,000 | €375,000 |
| 40% | €20,000 | €500,000 |
| 50% | €25,000 | €625,000 |
And for children, at 20% of €50,000 so €10,000 a year until twenty-five:
| Child's age | Years of entitlement | Present value |
|---|---|---|
| 5 | 20 | €135,903 |
| 10 | 15 | €111,184 |
| 15 | 10 | €81,109 |
These are the amounts disappearing three months after your last working day.
The three months that decide everything
Here's the core, and precisely where people unknowingly fall between the cracks.
Leave employment and risk cover continues for a standard three months. Some schemes use six; that's in your scheme rules.
What can happen during that window:
You start with a new employer. Run-off cover stops at that moment, regardless of whether the new scheme has a survivor's pension. That's worth noting: if your new employer has none or less, there's a gap.
You receive unemployment or sickness benefit. Cover then continues as long as that benefit runs, up to two years.
Neither happens. After three months you're uninsured.
By situation:
| Situation | Cover |
|---|---|
| New job within three months | Covered |
| New job after five months | Two months uninsured |
| Unemployment benefit | Covered while the benefit runs |
| A year's sabbatical | Nine months uninsured |
| Switching to self-employment | Uninsured after three months |
| Stopping work at sixty | Uninsured after three months |
That last row matters most for this series, and it recurs in the article on the drawbacks of drawing your pension early.
What this means if you want to stop early
Stop before state pension age and after three months you have no survivor's cover, lasting until your pension date.
| Stopping at | Years without cover |
|---|---|
| 55 | 12 years |
| 60 | 7 years |
| 62 | 5 years |
| 65 | 2 years |
Twelve years without cover, in the life stage where mortality risk is rising. That's a risk absent from every bridge calculation, including the one in the article on your FIRE number, because it isn't a cost item but an insurance question.
Anyone considering retiring early must arrange this before their last working day. Afterwards it's too late, because the option has expired and new insurance depends on your health at that moment.
What you can do
Three routes, and the first is the cheapest.
Voluntary continuation. At the end of the run-off period you get a one-off choice to continue risk cover by exchanging part of your accrued pension capital. That costs you retirement pension, but it's a right and there's no health assessment. For orphan's pension this usually isn't possible.
Your own term life insurance. Arranged independently of your employer, with a term you choose. The premium depends on your age, your health and the sum insured, and rises as you age. Arranging it while still healthy is therefore wiser than waiting.
Accepting that you carry it yourself. If your wealth is large enough to support your partner for life, insurance isn't needed. Calculate that rather than assuming it: at €25,000 a year you're talking about €625,000 of capital.
What you need to know in all three cases: your provider must inform you of the choice, but it's your responsibility to ask. The financial regulator has specifically flagged that participants can become unknowingly underinsured this way.
After your retirement date it's different
An important distinction that removes confusion.
Everything above concerns dying before your retirement date. Die after it and your partner usually receives a partner's pension of roughly half your retirement pension, and that is arranged for life.
When you retire you also often get a choice between a higher or lower partner's pension, exchanged against your own payment. That choice must be made before your pension starts and it's irreversible.
Special partner's pension after a divorce
If you've divorced, your ex-partner may be entitled to the part of the partner's pension accrued before the relationship ended.
Under the new system no partner's pension is accrued, so no such entitlement arises for new situations. What you accrued before the transition usually remains.
If you've divorced and your fund is transitioning, ask what happens to that entitlement.
Why almost nobody knows this
Three reasons reinforcing each other.
It's invisible. Insurance you don't use isn't noticed. Only when it lapses, and only if something happens.
It changes in phases. Funds transition until 1 January 2028 at the latest. Your scheme may still be the old form, or just converted, and that difference is large.
It falls outside the moment. Anyone changing jobs or stopping work has a hundred other things in mind. The letter about the choice arrives at precisely the wrong time.
The practical conclusion: check it at a calm moment, not on your last working day.
How Gylder fits in
Survivor's pension is insurance, not wealth, and rightly doesn't appear in your wealth overview.
What does count is the underlying question: could your partner manage if you weren't there? That's a comparison between your wealth and your spending, and those two figures Gylder does provide.
Your wealth updates daily across bank, broker, crypto, precious metals and your property with the mortgage underneath. Your spending is categorised automatically. That tells you whether the figure from the table above, €625,000 at 50% cover, is something you already have or something to insure.
What this doesn't tell you
Your scheme is decisive. The percentage, the three or six month run-off, and whether voluntary continuation is available: that's in your scheme rules.
Funds transition in phases. Until 1 January 2028 at the latest. Your current scheme may still be the old one.
Old entitlements can remain. What you accrued on an accrual basis before the transition is often converted and remains alongside the new risk cover. Ask how that works for you.
This isn't advice. Whether you need additional insurance depends on your wealth, your partner and your household.
Frequently asked questions
What is survivor's pension? A payment to your partner and children if you die. Before your retirement date it's now insurance valid while you're employed.
When does survivor's pension stop? For death before your retirement date: three months after your last working day, or six under some schemes. If you receive unemployment or sickness benefit, it continues while that runs.
How much is it? At most 50% of your pensionable salary, though many schemes sit lower. At €50,000 and 50% cover, €25,000 a year.
What happens if I go self-employed? Your cover lapses after the run-off period. You can make a one-off choice for voluntary continuation or arrange term life insurance yourself.
What is special partner's pension? The part of the partner's pension your ex-partner is entitled to after a divorce. Under the new system this no longer arises for new situations, though old entitlements usually remain.
Does my partner also receive a state pension? That depends on your partner's own situation and age. A separate state survivor's benefit exists with its own conditions. Check with the SVB.