| Payments from some pension plans stop with the death of the person insured. Some beneficiaries chose to have their pension benefit continue to their surviving spouse, sometimes the full amount, and sometimes at about 60% of the earlier rate. A few may continue to dependent children, and possibly to other children, but I think that rather unusual ... how long would that go on? Through the entire lifetime of the offspring? My private pension had a provision that, lacking a spouse, I could opt to have my pension continue to another specified beneficiary for a certain period (after I began to draw the pension?) or (after my death?): the former, I think. I wanted to specify my sister-in-law, whose husband died over 30 years ago, when their kids were in their teens ... but she would not agree. I have two government-provided pensions, one of them contributory, in addition to that private one. If you are a member of a private pension system, is it accessible by the employer? Or is it carried by an outside carrier, where the employer can't get his hands on it? Remember Enron? When they went broke, many employees suffered three life-upsetting events:
1. they lost their jobs, and many of them felt their company to be in good condition, until the end,
2. many had bought stock in Enron, as they believed it had a great future, and the value of their stock turned to dust, ... plus
3. Enron had pulled all of the assets from their pension plan, leaving it with no assets. If your pension system is managed by the employer, try to get it carried by a third party ... so that your credits would survive a bankruptcy. Good wishes for having an adequate pension fund. ole joyful | 
