Please make a note of how your survivor would initiate a claim for the benefit.
I encourage you to include information on this with your important personal papers such as Last Will and Testament, Estate documents, DD214s, and similar. You may have a fire safe box and/or a cloud file system that you share with your spouse, beneficiaries, or executor of your estate. The basic process involves of course a DD form, in the 2656 Family of Forms, and specifically DD 2656-7 Verification for Survivor Annuity. But, in reality, getting this claim started for survivors of a Navy Reservist can vary depending on the member’s status at time of death. If you are still SELRES, VTU, or IRR, your death must be reported through Navy Casualty. Your chain of command can help with this. But if you are a Retired Reservist, in the Gray Area, your survivor should contact the MyNavy Career Center to initiate the claim for coverage under the RC-SBP, and be prepared to mail a written request for benefits with an original death certificate to PERS. Once you are drawing retired pay, the claim would go through DFAS. Ultimately, the claimant would become an annuitant with a DFAS Annuitant account. Please note that by law your survivor has 6 years from the date of your death to apply for the annuity.
Married members electing spouse coverage and then divorced and remarried, but did not submit a change election with documentation within 1 year deadline, the current spouse will be automatically covered. (Married Members: (Option C) Spouse/Child(s) coverage will be imposed.) FORMER SPOUSES MUST FILE A DEEMED ELECTION WITH THE DEFENSE FINANCE ACCOUNTING SERVICE, CLEVELAND CENTER, AND THIS COMMAND WITHIN 1 YEAR OF THE DATE OF THE FINALIZED DIVORCE. SUCH ELECTION MUST BE MADE USING DD FORM 2656-10 AND INCLUDE A COMPLETE COPY OF THE FINAL DIVORCE DECREE.