What is my federal pension actually worth as a lump sum?

Take the yearly annuity, grow it by the cost-of-living rule that applies to your system, discount each future payment back to today, and add up the results. Using the OPM Board of Actuaries assumptions of 4.00 percent interest and 2.40 percent inflation, a $42,000 FERS annuity starting at 62 and paid for about 20 years values at roughly 16 to 17 times the yearly payment. CSRS values higher because it gets the full index increase.

Why does FERS value lower than CSRS on the same annuity?

The cost-of-living rule. 5 U.S.C. 8340(b) gives CSRS annuitants the full index increase. 5 U.S.C. 8462(b) trims FERS: if the index rises 3 percent or less, FERS gets the lesser of the increase or 2 percent, and if it rises more than 3 percent, FERS gets the increase minus 1 point. OPM’s own actuaries assume a FERS cost-of-living adjustment of 1.92 percent against a 2.40 percent inflation assumption, which is exactly 80 percent of inflation.

Do FERS retirees get cost-of-living increases before 62?

Most do not. 5 U.S.C. 8462(c)(3) suppresses the adjustment for anyone under 62. The exceptions are law enforcement officers, firefighters, nuclear materials couriers, customs and border protection officers, air traffic controllers, disability retirees, survivors, and military reserve technicians separated for disability. If you retire at 57 on a regular FERS annuity, your payment is frozen in dollar terms for five years.

What discount rate should I use?

The page defaults to 4.00 percent because that is the long-term interest rate the OPM Board of Actuaries uses to value the Civil Service Retirement and Disability Fund. If you would rather price it against the market, the 20-year Treasury yield was 5.67 percent on October 2, 2026, and there is a button to load it. A higher discount rate always produces a smaller present value, because it assumes you could earn more on money in hand.

How much does the discount rate change the answer?

A lot, which is why the sensitivity table sits next to the result. OPM’s own figures make the same point: its Fiscal Year 2024 report shows that moving the long-term interest rate by a quarter of a point changes the FERS accrued liability by about 4 percent, or roughly $50 billion on a $1.235 trillion liability. One full point either way moves an individual present value by a similar proportion.

Where does the life expectancy default come from?

The SSA Period Life Table for 2023, as used in the 2026 Trustees Report. At 62 it shows 20.29 more years for men and 23.08 for women. It is a period table, so it assumes mortality stays at 2023 levels and builds in no future improvement, which makes it read slightly short for someone retiring today. The field is editable if you want to plan to a specific age instead.

Is the "cost to buy this income" figure a real quote?

It is a commercial payout rate, not a government number, and it is not a quote for you. The page uses published single premium immediate annuity payout rates surveyed on September 9, 2026 for a life-only contract. Those contracts pay a level amount with no inflation protection and are priced separately for men and women, so replacing a cost-of-living adjusted federal annuity would cost more than the figure shown.

Can I actually take my federal pension as a lump sum?

No. There is no option to cash out a FERS or CSRS annuity. This calculator exists so you can compare the annuity against other assets on the same footing: deciding whether a buyout offer is worth taking, weighing a job change, checking whether your retirement savings target already accounts for the pension, or settling a divorce. Treat the output as a planning estimate, not a figure anyone will pay you.

Calculator

Federal Pension Value

Price your FERS or CSRS annuity as a lump sum in today’s dollars. Uses the statutory cost-of-living rules, the OPM Board of Actuaries assumptions and SSA life tables, and shows what the same income would cost to buy.

Reviewed by Jonathan D., 20-year federal employee · Formulas verified against OPM CSRDF Annual Report · Updated October 2026

Planning estimate, not a cash-out option

You cannot take a FERS or CSRS annuity as a lump sum. This values the income stream so you can weigh it against other assets, which is what a buyout decision, a job change or a divorce settlement actually needs. The answer moves with the assumptions, so read the sensitivity table before you lean on one figure.

Reviewed October 3, 2026 · Sources: 5 U.S.C. 8462 (FERS COLA), 5 U.S.C. 8340 (CSRS COLA), OPM CSRDF Annual Report (assumptions), SSA Period Life Table · Inputs stay in your browser. Nothing you type is sent anywhere.

Yearly annuity at the start

Gross, before the survivor reduction and before tax. If you do not know it, run the FERS or CSRS calculator first.

Retirement system

CSRS gets the whole index increase. FERS gets a trimmed one under 5 U.S.C. 8462(b), which is why the same dollar annuity is worth less under FERS.

Survivor election

Age the annuity starts

Life table column

SSA publishes separate columns. Your federal annuity itself is not priced by sex.

Years the annuity is assumed to pay

Default is 20.29 years from the SSA Period Life Table, 2023 (2026 Trustees Report). Edit it if you want to plan to a specific age.

Discount rate %

Inflation %

Defaults are the OPM Board of Actuaries assumptions used to value the Civil Service Retirement and Disability Fund: 4 percent interest and 2.4 percent inflation. For a market rate instead, the 20-year Treasury was 5.67 percent on 2026-10-02.

A $42,000 FERS annuity paid for 20 years is worth about $702,883 today, which is 16.7 times the yearly payment.

Present value today

$702,883

At 4.0% discount, 2.4% inflation

Total paid out, undiscounted

$1,020,490

Average COLA actually applied: 2.00%

Cost to buy this income

$530,303

At a 7.92% life-only payout rate quoted for age 62 as of September 9, 2026

That purchase price buys a level payment with no inflation protection, quoted separately for men and women. Your federal annuity rises with the index and is priced the same for everyone, so the real cost of replacing it on the open market is higher than the figure shown.

What one point of discount rate does
Discount rate	Present value	Change
3.0%	$766,857	+$63,974
4.0% (yours)	$702,883	no change
5.0%	$646,744	-$56,139

Each year's payment is discounted back to today, then the discounted payments are added up. Writing A for the first payment, g for the COLA, r for the discount rate and n for the number of years:

PV = sum, t = 1 to n, of A x (1 + g)^(t-1) / (1 + r)^(t-1)

The first year is not discounted because a federal annuity starts paying at retirement. Survivor reduction applied: $0 a year, which leaves $42,000 as A.

Year by year payment schedule with the COLA applied and the discounted value
Age	COLA	Payment	Worth today
62	none	$42,000	$42,000
63	2.0%	$42,840	$41,192
64	2.0%	$43,697	$40,400
65	2.0%	$44,571	$39,623
66	2.0%	$45,462	$38,861
67	2.0%	$46,371	$38,114
68	2.0%	$47,299	$37,381
69	2.0%	$48,245	$36,662
70	2.0%	$49,210	$35,957
71	2.0%	$50,194	$35,266
72	2.0%	$51,198	$34,587
73	2.0%	$52,222	$33,922
74	2.0%	$53,266	$33,270
75	2.0%	$54,331	$32,630
76	2.0%	$55,418	$32,003
77	2.0%	$56,526	$31,387
78	2.0%	$57,657	$30,784
79	2.0%	$58,810	$30,192
80	2.0%	$59,986	$29,611
81	2.0%	$61,186	$29,042

What this models

What the Federal Pension Value Calculator models and what it does not model
Modeled	Not modeled
The FERS cost-of-living brackets in 8462(b)(1), including the behaviour at exactly 3 percent	Year-to-year variation in inflation. One constant assumption is applied to every year
The under-62 suppression in 8462(c)(3), with the special provision exceptions as a toggle	The month-by-month proration of the first year’s adjustment under 8462(c)(1)
The full index increase for CSRS under 8340(b)	The rounding of each monthly installment down to the dollar under 8462(d)
The survivor reductions in 8419(a) for FERS and 8339(j)(4) for CSRS	The value of the survivor annuity itself. This prices the retiree’s own stream only
A yearly payment stream valued as an annuity-due, so the first year is not discounted	Monthly discounting. Federal annuities pay monthly and adjust once a year, and annual steps track that within about 1 percent
SSA period life table defaults, with interpolation between published ages flagged in the form	Future mortality improvement, joint life expectancy, and your own health
A sensitivity table one point either side of your discount rate	Tax. The annuity is taxable income and the present value shown is pre-tax

Precision limit: a present value is only as good as its assumptions, and reasonable people pick different ones. Treat the sensitivity table as the real answer and the single headline figure as its midpoint. The life expectancy default is a period table, which reads short for someone retiring today and biases the value low.

The diet cost-of-living rule is the whole story

Two retirees, same salary, same years, same age. One is CSRS and one is FERS. The CSRS annuity is worth noticeably more per dollar of payment, and the reason is one sentence of statute. CSRS gets the whole index increase. FERS gets the lesser of the increase or 2 percent when prices rise 3 percent or less, and the increase minus a point when they rise faster.

OPM's actuaries put a number on the gap. Their long-term assumption is 2.40 percent inflation and a 1.92 percent FERS adjustment, and they say in the report that the second figure is 80 percent of the first. Over a 25-year retirement, losing a fifth of your inflation protection every year compounds into a materially smaller stream.

Retiring before 62 costs more than the age reduction

A regular FERS retiree who leaves at 57 gets no cost-of-living increase until 62. Five frozen years do not sound severe, but they lower the base that every later increase builds on, so the loss never gets made up. Tick the special provision box on the form and the same inputs produce a visibly larger present value, which is the cleanest way to see what those five years are worth.

What the pension is worth against what it would cost

The purchase price shown next to the present value comes from published commercial payout rates, and it is deliberately unflattering to the insurer. Those contracts pay a flat amount forever, with no inflation protection, and they charge women more because they live longer. Your federal annuity rises with prices and is priced the same for everyone. If replacing a level annuity already costs that much, replacing an indexed one costs more.