MLR-15 · MILITARY LIFE RECORD
Survivors
MLR-15: Surviving spouse, children, dependents, insurance, SBP, DIC, pension, education, healthcare, burial follow-up, survivor claims, reviews, and annual audits.
Controlling research question
Identify the claimant, program, eligibility event, governing version, effective date, and review path separately for each survivor benefit.
Core records to preserve
Relationship and dependency records; applications; elections; award/denial notices; payment records; healthcare eligibility; school records; appeals and representation files.
Chronology and evidence testing
- Record the event date separately from the date a document was created.
- Identify the person, component, unit, duty status, location, and issuing office where they matter.
- Separate a record’s express statement from inference, family recollection, or a later summary.
- Preserve conflicts rather than silently harmonizing them; record negative searches by repository, query, dates, and coverage.
Key evidence pathways
- Separation & DD-214 Records
- Family & Beneficiary Records
- Claims, Decisions & Appeals
- Casualty & Death Records
Related navigation guides
- Survivor Benefit Plan Annuity
- Dependency Indemnity Compensation Dic
- Survivors Pension
- Annual Survivor Benefits Audit
Authority and effective-date discipline
This Life Record chapter organizes chronology and evidence. It does not by itself state current eligibility, entitlement, deadline, or legal effect. For a rule-dependent question, identify the governing statute, regulation, departmental instruction, program guidance, or decision effective on the relevant date and use the linked Navigation Guide for the current pathway.
Preservation standard
Keep the best available source copy unchanged. Store edited, OCR, transcription, annotation, or working versions separately. Record creator, date/covered period, repository, exact locator, provenance, proposition supported, express limitations, and derivative lineage.
