Att death benefit

Your question should be directed to HR, not on an open forum. 

this is news to me 

You are eligible for the death benefit if you were an AT&T employee eligible for the death benefit on 1/1/1998, you terminated employment before 1/1/2008 and satisfied the Modified Rule of 75 when you terminated employment, and YOU DID NOT TAKE A FULL LUMP SUM DISTRIBUTION OF YOUR PENSION BENEFIT.
Until 1/1/2022, the beneficiary of an eligible person would have received a death benefit equal to person's annual salary on 12/31/1997 upon the person's death. After that the benefit became $25K.

Were you able to get any solid answers? Is it just for those who didn't take a lump sum at retirement? Did it all change after ATT took away promised death benefits? Thank you.

It is just for those who didn't take a lump sum at retirement, provided they meet all the other requirements I mentioned before.   It shrunk to $25K on 1/1/22.  The people that answer the phones at AT&T Benefits will not tell you anything about the "death benefit".  I got this information from the documents AT&T is required by law to send to former employees and retirees. 

When my mom died, I opened up an ATT booklet that read "What's new in 2022"  It stated that AD&D would now be added to basic insurance paid by ATT and they clearly stated $25000 additional would be paid out.   In fact, we would not have known to contact Fidelity for the pension,  Fidelity did their part,  but ATT refused to pay the Accidental Death, they refused to provide the policy or the insurance company.  I can not find that white booklet and so I have no proof ,  neither did ATT each time providing informaiton that was outdated,  but for us in the end they refused to pay.   They were wrong, but no one was able to provide informaiton to validate my information..    It's so frustrating.  I really wish you luck.