SECTION 129.12. Payments to Alternate Payees

(a) In the event that the participant terminates membership in the system and applies for a refund of the participant's accumulated deposits and interest, the system will make a lump-sum payment to the alternate payee if the domestic relations order so provides and the order has been determined to be a qualified domestic relations order.

(b) In the event that the participant (or the participant's designated beneficiary or estate) begins receiving an annuity after the date that a qualified domestic relations order is received by the system, and the order provides for a division of the annuity in that event, the payment to the alternate payee will be a monthly allowance payable during the lifetime of the alternate payee, which payment is the actuarial equivalent of the portion of the participant's benefit that was awarded to the alternate payee under the domestic relations order. For the period from the January 22, 2001, original initial effective date of §123.17 of this title (relating to Actuarial Tables) through December 31, 2014, the mortality assumption for alternate payees for determining the payment to the alternate payee shall be the same as the mortality assumption for the beneficiaries as set forth in §123.17(a) of this title with regard to service retirements and as set forth in §123.17(b) of this title with regard to disability retirements. Effective beginning January 1, 2015, the mortality assumption for alternate payees for determining the payment to the alternate payee shall be the same as the mortality assumption for the beneficiaries as set forth in §123.17(c) of this title with regard to service retirements and with regard to disability retirements and shall take into account the applicable phase in period, if any, that may be adopted by the board pursuant to §123.17(d) of this title.

(c) Subsection (b) of this section will apply to all domestic relations orders approved in accordance with this chapter after September 9, 1989, and to such domestic relations orders approved prior to that date as are construed to provide for such an annuity.

(d) In the event that the total reserves upon which an annuity (otherwise payable to an alternate payee under a qualified domestic relations order) would be calculated are $10,000 or less, then the system is authorized to make a single lump-sum payment to the alternate payee in the amount of those reserves instead of paying an annuity to the alternate payee. No such payment shall be made by the system until such point in time as the system begins paying an annuity to the participant or the participant's designated beneficiary, surviving spouse, or estate.

(e) The suspension of a disability retirement benefit under the Act does not suspend payment of a benefit to an alternate payee under a qualified domestic relations order.

Source Note: The provisions of this §129.12 adopted to be effective July 1, 2022, 47 TexReg 3272