If a member dies in Line of Duty (LOD) when not yet retirement eligible, the Survivor Benefit Plan annuity payable is _____ percent of the retired pay the member would have been entitled to receive if he or she retired with a total disability rating.

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Survivor Benefit Plan provides a survivor annuity equal to a fixed percentage of the member’s base amount. The base amount is defined as the retired pay the member would have received if they had retired with a total disability rating. When death occurs in Line of Duty before retirement eligibility, the base amount is calculated as if the member had retired with total disability, and the survivor receives 55% of that hypothetical disability retirement. So the monthly survivor annuity is 0.55 times the disability-retirement pay the member would have received. For example, if that hypothetical retirement would have been $2,000 per month, the survivor would receive $1,100 per month. The 55% figure is the standard rate for this scenario, which is why the correct answer is 55 percent.