A. If any member who has at least ten years of credited service terminates employment for reasons other than retirement or disability, the member may elect to receive a deferred annuity, except that if the annuitant withdraws all or part of the annuitant’s accumulated contributions in the system all rights in and to a deferred annuity shall be forfeited by the annuitant. A deferred annuity is a lifetime monthly payment actuarially equivalent to the annuitant’s accumulated contributions in the system plus an equal amount paid by the employer and shall commence on application on or after the sixty-second birthday of the annuitant. The annuity is not a retirement benefit and annuitants are not entitled to receive any amount prescribed by section 38-845, subsection F or section 38-846, 38-856.05 or 38-857.

Terms Used In Arizona Laws 38-846.01

  • Accumulated contributions: means , for each member, the sum of the amount of the member's aggregate contributions made to the fund and the amount, if any, attributable to the employee's contributions before the member's effective date under another public retirement system, other than the federal social security act, and transferred to the fund minus the benefits paid to or on behalf of the member. See Arizona Laws 38-842
  • Annuitant: means a person who is receiving a benefit pursuant to Section 38-846. See Arizona Laws 38-842
  • Annuity: A periodic (usually annual) payment of a fixed sum of money for either the life of the recipient or for a fixed number of years. A series of payments under a contract from an insurance company, a trust company, or an individual. Annuity payments are made at regular intervals over a period of more than one full year.
  • Credited service: means the member's total period of service before the member's effective date of participation, plus those compensated periods of the member's service thereafter for which the member made contributions to the fund. See Arizona Laws 38-842
  • Normal retirement date: means :

    (a) For an employee who becomes a member of the system before January 1, 2012, the first day of the calendar month immediately following the employee's completion of twenty years of service or the employee's sixty-second birthday and the employee's completion of fifteen years of service. See Arizona Laws 38-842

  • Service: means the last period of continuous employment of an employee by the employers before the employee's retirement, except that if such period includes employment during which the employee would not have qualified as a member had the system then been effective, such as employment as a volunteer firefighter, then only twenty-five percent of such noncovered employment shall be considered as service. See Arizona Laws 38-842
  • System: means the public safety personnel retirement system established by this article. See Arizona Laws 38-842

B. This section does not apply to a member who becomes a member of the system on or after January 1, 2012. For a member who is hired on or after January 1, 2012 and before July 1, 2017, a member who attains a normal retirement date is eligible for retirement and a retirement benefit even if the member terminates employment with an employer before the age requirement for normal retirement if the member attains the service requirement for normal retirement. For a member who is hired on or after July 1, 2017, a member who attains a normal retirement date is eligible for retirement and a retirement benefit even if the member terminates employment with an employer before the age requirement for normal retirement if the member attains the credited service requirement for normal retirement. Once a member described in this subsection reaches the normal retirement age, the member may receive payments made under section 38-845.