You may elect to receive the maximum retirement allowance for which you are eligible. However, if you elect to provide for a beneficiary after you die, your retirement allowance would be reduced. The following choices are available regarding your beneficiary: options that provide lifetime benefits to your beneficiary after your death; options that enable your retirement allowance to "pop up" to the maximum if your beneficiary predeceases you; and options that guarantee that a certain number of retirement allowance payments will be made to you (or to your beneficiary, if you should die before the designated number of payments have been made). Tier I and II members also have the option of leaving a lump-sum amount to a beneficiary. In all cases, you would receive your retirement allowance for as long as you live. Please see the FAQs–Beneficiaries section for more information.