38-801

38-801. Definitions

In this article, unless the context otherwise requires:

1. "Accumulated contributions" means the sum of all member contributions deducted
from the member's salary pursuant to section 38-810, subsection A plus the amount
transferred to the fund on behalf of the member plus the amount deposited in the fund
pursuant to section 38-816.

2. "Actuarial equivalent" means equality in present value of the aggregate amounts
expected to be received under two different forms of payment, based on mortality and
interest assumptions adopted by the board.

3. "Alternate payee" means the spouse or former spouse of a participant as
designated in a domestic relations order.

4. "Alternate payee's portion" means benefits that are payable to an alternate
payee pursuant to a plan approved domestic relations order.

5. "Average yearly salary" means the result obtained by dividing the total salary
paid to an employee during a considered period by the number of years, including
fractional years, in which the salary was received. The considered period shall be the
three consecutive years within the last ten completed years of credited service as an
elected official that yield the highest average. If an employee does not have three
consecutive years of credited service as an elected official, the considered period is
the employee's last consecutive period of employment with a plan employer immediately
before retirement.

6. "Board" means the board of trustees of the system.

7. "Credited service" means the number of whole and fractional years of a member's
service as an elected official after the elected official's effective date of
participation for which member and employer contributions are on deposit with the fund,
plus credited service transferred to the plan from another retirement system or plan for
public employees of this state, plus service as an elected official before the elected
official's effective date of participation that is being funded pursuant to a joinder
agreement pursuant to section 38-810, subsection C and section 38-815 or service that was
redeemed pursuant to section 38-816. Credited service does not include periods of service
for which an active member is uncompensated by the employer and for which no
contributions to the plan are made.

8. "Cure period" means the ninety-day period in which a participant or alternate
payee may submit an amended domestic relations order and request a determination,
calculated from the time the plan issues a determination finding that a previously
submitted domestic relations order did not qualify as a plan approved domestic relations
order.

9. "Determination" means a written document that indicates to a participant and
alternate payee whether a domestic relations order qualifies as a plan approved domestic
relations order.

10. "Determination period" means the ninety-day period in which the plan must review
a domestic relations order that is submitted by a participant or alternate payee to
determine whether the domestic relations order qualifies as a plan approved domestic
relations order, calculated from the time the plan mails a notice of receipt to the
participant and alternate payee.

11. "Direct rollover" means a payment by the plan to an eligible retirement plan
that is specified by the distributee.

12. "Distributee" means a member, a member's surviving spouse or a member's spouse
or former spouse who is the alternate payee under a plan approved domestic relations
order.

13. "Domestic relations order" means an order of a court of this state that is made
pursuant to the domestic relations laws of this state and that creates or recognizes the
existence of an alternate payee's right to, or assigns to an alternate payee the right
to, receive a portion of the benefits payable to a participant.

14. "Effective date of participation" means August 7, 1985, except with respect to
employers and their elected officials whose contributions to the plan commence after that
date, in which case the effective date of their participation in the plan is specified in
the applicable joinder agreement.

15. "Elected official" means:

(a) Every elected official of this state.

(b) Every elected official of each county of this state.

(c) Every justice of the supreme court, every judge of the court of appeals, every
judge of the superior court and every full-time superior court commissioner, except
full-time superior court commissioners who failed to make a timely election of membership
under the judges' retirement plan, repealed on August 7, 1985.

(d) The administrator of the board if the administrator is a natural person.

(e) Each elected official of an incorporated city or town whose employer has
executed a proper joinder agreement for coverage of its elected officials.

16. "Eligible child" means an unmarried child of a deceased active or retired member
who meets one of the following qualifications:

(a) Is under eighteen years of age.

(b) Is at least eighteen years of age and under twenty-three years of age only
during any period that the child is a full-time student.

(c) Is under a disability that began before the child attained twenty-three years
of age and remains a dependent of the surviving spouse or guardian.

17. "Eligible retirement plan" means any of the following that accepts a
distributee's eligible rollover distribution:

(a) An individual retirement account described in section 408(a) of the internal
revenue code.

(b) An individual retirement annuity described in section 408(b) of the internal
revenue code.

(d) A qualified trust described in section 401(a) of the internal revenue code.

(e) An annuity contract described in section 403(b) of the internal revenue code.

(f) An eligible deferred compensation plan described in section 457(b) of the
internal revenue code that is maintained by a state, a political subdivision of a state
or any agency or instrumentality of a state or a political subdivision of a state and
that agrees to separately account for amounts transferred into the eligible deferred
compensation plan from this plan.

18. "Eligible rollover distribution" means a payment to a distributee, but does not
include any of the following:

(a) Any distribution that is one of a series of substantially equal periodic
payments made not less frequently than annually for the life or life expectancy of the
member or the joint lives or joint life expectancies of the member and the member's
beneficiary or for a specified period of ten years or more.

(b) Any distribution to the extent the distribution is required under section
401(a)(9) of the internal revenue code.

19. "Employer" means a department, agency or political subdivision of this state
that makes employer contributions to the plan pursuant to section 38-810 on behalf of an
elected official who participates in the plan.

20. "Fund" means the elected officials' retirement plan fund.

21. "Notice of receipt" means a written document that is issued by the plan to a
participant and alternate payee and that states that the plan has received a domestic
relations order and a request for a determination that the domestic relations order is a
plan approved domestic relations order.

22. "Participant" means a member who is subject to a domestic relations order.

23. "Participant's portion" means benefits that are payable to a participant
pursuant to a plan approved domestic relations order.

24. "Pension" means a series of monthly payments to a person who is entitled to
receive benefits under the plan.

25. "Personal representative" means the personal representative of a deceased
alternate payee.

26. "Plan" means the elected officials' retirement plan.

27. "Plan approved domestic relations order" means a domestic relations order that
the plan approves as meeting all the requirements for a plan approved domestic relations
order as otherwise prescribed in this article.

28. "Retired member" means a person who is being paid a pension based on the
person's credited service as a member of the plan.

29. "Segregated funds" means the amount of benefits that would currently be payable
to an alternate payee pursuant to a domestic relations order under review by the plan, or
a domestic relations order submitted to the plan that failed to qualify as a plan
approved domestic relations order, if the domestic relations order were determined to be
a plan approved domestic relations order.

30. "System" means the public safety personnel retirement system.