This provision defines several terms used in the Spousal Pension Rights Act, including alternate payee, benefit, domestic relations order, earliest retirement date, qualified domestic relations order, segregated amounts, and statewide public retirement system.
For purposes of the Spousal Pension Rights Act: (1) Alternate payee means a spouse, former spouse, child, or other dependent of a member who is recognized by a domestic relations order as having a right to receive all or a portion of the benefits payable by a statewide public retirement system with respect to such member; (2) Benefit means an annuity, a pension, a retirement allowance, a withdrawal of accumulated contributions, or an optional benefit accrued or accruing to a member under a statewide public retirement system; (3) Domestic relations order means a judgment, decree, or order, including approval of a property settlement agreement, which relates to the provision of child support, alimony payments, maintenance support, or marital property rights to a spouse, former spouse, child, or other dependent of a member and is made pursuant to a state domestic relations law of this state or another state; (4) Earliest retirement date means the earlier of (a) the date on which the member is entitled to a distribution under the system or (b) the later of (i) the date that the member attains fifty years of age or (ii) the earliest date that the member could receive benefits under the system if the member separated from service; (5) Qualified domestic relations order means a domestic relations order which creates or recognizes the existence of an alternate payee's right, or assigns to an alternate payee the right, to receive all or a portion of the benefits payable with respect to a member under a statewide public retirement system, which directs the system to disburse benefits to the alternate payee, and which meets the requirements of section 42-1103; (6) Segregated amounts means the amounts which would have been payable to the alternative payee during the period of time that the qualified status of an order is being determined. Such amounts shall equal the amounts payable for such period if the order had been determined to be a qualified domestic relations order; and (7) Statewide public retirement system means the Retirement System for Nebraska Counties, the Nebraska Judges Retirement System as provided in the Judges Retirement Act, the School Employees Retirement System of the State of Nebraska, any Class V school employees retirement system, the Nebraska State Patrol Retirement System, and the State Employees Retirement System of the State of Nebraska. History: Laws 1996, LB 1273, § 2; Laws 2004, LB 1097, § 21; Laws 2011, LB509, § 12; Laws 2025, LB295, § 8.