This section sets when a member’s service or disability retirement becomes effective, requires the date to be the last day of a calendar month and after employment ends, and lets a qualifying surviving spouse make a timed election after death.
Sec. 854.003. EFFECTIVE DATE OF RETIREMENT. (a) Except as provided by Subsections (b) and (d), the effective date of a member's service retirement is the date the member designates at the time the member applies for retirement under Section 854.101, but the date must be the last day of a calendar month and may not precede the date the member terminates employment with all participating municipalities. (b) If a member dies before retirement and an annuity becomes payable under Section 854.105, the member is considered to have retired on the last day of the month immediately preceding the month in which death occurred, except as provided by Subsection (e). (c) Except as provided by Subsections (b) and (d), the effective date of a member's disability retirement is the date designated on the application for retirement filed by or for the member as provided by Section 854.301, but the date must be the last day of a calendar month and may not precede the date the member terminates employment with all participating municipalities. (d) Notwithstanding any other provision of this subtitle, each distribution of a benefit under this subtitle must be determined and made in accordance with Section 401(a)(9) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, and its subsequent amendments, including the minimum incidental death benefit requirements of Section 401(a)(9)(G) of that code. The board of trustees may adopt rules it determines necessary to comply with the distribution requirements, including rules under which a person is considered to have retired as a result of those requirements. (e) If the person who is eligible to receive an annuity under Subsection (b) is the member's surviving spouse, the person may elect, by notifying the retirement system not later than the 180th day after the date of the member's death, to leave the member's accumulated contributions on deposit with the retirement system until the date the member would have been eligible for service retirement. If a surviving spouse makes an election under this subsection, the deceased member is considered to have retired on the last day of the month in which the member would have attained an age for service retirement eligibility. An election under this subsection is revocable before the payment of the first annuity payment by filing a written application approved by the board of trustees to receive the member's accumulated contributions. Added by Acts 1981, 67th Leg., p. 1876, ch. 453, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1981. Renumbered from Vernon's Ann.Civ.St. Title 110B, Sec. 64.003 and amended by Acts 1989, 71st Leg., ch. 179, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1989. Amended by Acts 1993, 73rd Leg., ch. 57, Sec. 9, eff. Jan. 1, 1994; Acts 1995, 74th Leg., ch. 514, Sec. 9, eff. Sept. 1, 1995; Acts 2001, 77th Leg., ch. 121, Sec. 10, eff. Jan. 1, 2002; Acts 2003, 78th Leg., ch. 599, Sec. 10, eff. Jan. 1, 2004.