diff --git a/src/main/java/org/apache/sysds/runtime/controlprogram/federated/FederatedData.java b/src/main/java/org/apache/sysds/runtime/controlprogram/federated/FederatedData.java
index 98572e2ddd0..19277ba0843 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/apache/sysds/runtime/controlprogram/federated/FederatedData.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/apache/sysds/runtime/controlprogram/federated/FederatedData.java
@@ -66,6 +66,7 @@
 import io.netty.channel.socket.nio.NioSocketChannel;
 import io.netty.handler.codec.serialization.ObjectEncoder;
 import io.netty.handler.timeout.ReadTimeoutHandler;
+import io.netty.util.concurrent.DefaultThreadFactory;
 import io.netty.util.concurrent.Promise;
 
 @SuppressWarnings("deprecation")
@@ -299,7 +300,11 @@ public static void clearWorkGroup() {
 
 	public synchronized static void createWorkGroup() {
 		if(workerGroup == null)
-			workerGroup = new NioEventLoopGroup(DMLConfig.DEFAULT_NUMBER_OF_FEDERATED_WORKER_THREADS);
+			// Daemon event loops so a leaked client-side group (e.g. in-JVM coordinator tests, a missed
+			// clearWorkGroup(), or an in-flight async shutdownGracefully) cannot block JVM exit. This mirrors
+			// the daemon factory used for the server-side worker in FederatedWorker.
+			workerGroup = new NioEventLoopGroup(DMLConfig.DEFAULT_NUMBER_OF_FEDERATED_WORKER_THREADS,
+				new DefaultThreadFactory("fed-client-worker", true));
 	}
 
 	private static class DataRequestHandler extends ChannelInboundHandlerAdapter {
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/apache/sysds/runtime/controlprogram/federated/monitoring/FederatedMonitoringServer.java b/src/main/java/org/apache/sysds/runtime/controlprogram/federated/monitoring/FederatedMonitoringServer.java
index 6b3b180a260..d1a482a689a 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/apache/sysds/runtime/controlprogram/federated/monitoring/FederatedMonitoringServer.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/apache/sysds/runtime/controlprogram/federated/monitoring/FederatedMonitoringServer.java
@@ -34,6 +34,7 @@
 import io.netty.handler.codec.http.HttpServerCodec;
 import io.netty.handler.codec.http.cors.CorsConfigBuilder;
 import io.netty.handler.codec.http.cors.CorsHandler;
+import io.netty.util.concurrent.DefaultThreadFactory;
 
 public class FederatedMonitoringServer {
 	protected static Logger log = Logger.getLogger(FederatedMonitoringServer.class);
@@ -51,8 +52,10 @@ public FederatedMonitoringServer(int port, boolean debug) {
 
 	public void run() {
 		log.info("Setting up Federated Monitoring Backend on port " + _port);
-		EventLoopGroup bossGroup = new NioEventLoopGroup();
-		EventLoopGroup workerGroup = new NioEventLoopGroup();
+		// Daemon event loops so a leaked in-JVM (test) monitoring server cannot block JVM exit. This mirrors
+		// the daemon factory used for the federated worker and client in FederatedWorker and FederatedData.
+		EventLoopGroup bossGroup = new NioEventLoopGroup(0, new DefaultThreadFactory("fed-monitoring-boss", true));
+		EventLoopGroup workerGroup = new NioEventLoopGroup(0, new DefaultThreadFactory("fed-monitoring-pool", true));
 
 		try {
 			var corsConfig = CorsConfigBuilder.forAnyOrigin()
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/apache/sysds/runtime/controlprogram/federated/monitoring/services/WorkerService.java b/src/main/java/org/apache/sysds/runtime/controlprogram/federated/monitoring/services/WorkerService.java
index a2ee2843405..f294fbd5c17 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/apache/sysds/runtime/controlprogram/federated/monitoring/services/WorkerService.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/apache/sysds/runtime/controlprogram/federated/monitoring/services/WorkerService.java
@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@
 import java.util.concurrent.CompletableFuture;
 import java.util.concurrent.Executors;
 import java.util.concurrent.ScheduledExecutorService;
+import java.util.concurrent.ThreadFactory;
 import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;
 
 import org.apache.commons.lang3.tuple.MutablePair;
@@ -117,11 +118,22 @@ private static synchronized void updateCachedWorkers(List<WorkerModel> workers,
 
 	private static synchronized void startStatsCollectionProcess(int threadCount, double frequencySeconds) {
 		if (executorService == null) {
-			executorService = Executors.newScheduledThreadPool(threadCount);
+			// Daemon threads so this never-shut-down background stats collector cannot block JVM exit
+			// (e.g. keep a surefire test fork alive after the monitoring tests complete).
+			executorService = Executors.newScheduledThreadPool(threadCount, daemonThreadFactory());
 			executorService.scheduleAtFixedRate(syncWorkerStatisticsRunnable(), 0, Math.round(frequencySeconds * 1000), TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS);
 		}
 	}
 
+	private static ThreadFactory daemonThreadFactory() {
+		final ThreadFactory base = Executors.defaultThreadFactory();
+		return r -> {
+			Thread t = base.newThread(r);
+			t.setDaemon(true);
+			return t;
+		};
+	}
+
 	public static void syncWorkerStatisticsWithDB(StatisticsModel stats, Long id) {
 
 		// NOTE: This part of the code is not directly connected to requests coming from the frontend