Departmental Human Resources: When an Employee Dies

(Complete campus guidelines for responding to death are available at http://uhs.berkeley.edu/death-response/.)

Active faculty or staff

Please call or email the appropriate Central HR Benefits staff member and provide the following information as soon as possible after an employee death is reported:

  1. Employee name
  2. Employee ID number1
  3. Date of employee’s death
  4. Cause of employee’s death
  5. Employee’s last day of work
  6. Employee’s status at the time of death (active, leave without pay…)
  7. The employee's final sick leave and vacation leave balances
  8. Is there a spouse or domestic partner? If so, name, birth date, SSN, address and phone number.
  9. Are there dependent (minor) children? If so, the name(s) and birth date(s).
  10. If there is no spouse (or domestic partner), who is the nearest relative and what is the relationship to the employee? What is the address and phone number?
  11. Are there memorial/funeral arrangements? What are they?
  12. Who is the department contact person? What is the phone number and email address?

Depending on the individual circumstances, there may be other questions as well. Central HR Benefits staff members are available to speak with the department and/or the spouse or next of kin regarding any questions they may have about benefits.

The information provided is passed on to the Office of the President Retirement Claims Unit for processing any survivor benefits and/or distributions associated with the retirement plan. These may include: UCRP pre- or post retirement survivor income for eligible dependents or refund of accumulations, as well as distributions of the UCRP Death Benefit and CAP, as applicable.

Survivors must contact Fidelity Retirement Services directly regarding any DC, 403(b), and/or 457(b) plan contributions and available options:
Fidelity Retirement Services
1-866-682-7787 (press 0)

1If you do not have an employee ID#, you may submit the social security number (SSN) by phone only; please do not send us the SSN by email.

Retiree

Contact the Office of the President Customer Service to report a retiree’s death. Include the name and Social Security Number of the retiree as well as the next of kin information.

Address: UC Central Human Resources and Benefits
Retirement Services
P.O. Box 24570
Oakland, CA 94623-1570
Phone: 1-800-888-8267
Email: customer.service@ucop.edu

Reference
Survivor and Beneficiary Handbooks are available from UCnet Forms and Publications