South Carolina Code 9-1-1660. Nominee on member’s death may receive monthly allowance instead of accumulated contributions
(1) has five or more years of earned service or eight or more years of such service for a Class Three member;
Terms Used In South Carolina Code 9-1-1660
- Beneficiary: A person who is entitled to receive the benefits or proceeds of a will, trust, insurance policy, retirement plan, annuity, or other contract. Source: OCC
- Beneficiary: means a person in receipt of a pension, an annuity, a retirement allowance or other benefit provided under the system. See South Carolina Code 9-1-10
- Class Three member: means an employee member of the system with an effective date of membership after June 30, 2012. See South Carolina Code 9-1-10
- Creditable service: means a member's earned service, prior service, and purchased service. See South Carolina Code 9-1-10
- Earned service: means :
(a) paid employment as a teacher or employee of an employer participating in the system where the teacher or employee makes regular retirement contributions to the system; or
(b) service rendered while participating in the State Optional Retirement Program, the Optional Retirement Program for Teachers and School Administrators, or the Optional Retirement Program for Publicly Supported Four Year and Postgraduate Institutions of Higher Education that has been purchased pursuant to § 9-1-1140(F); or
(c) service earned as a participant in the system, the South Carolina Police Officers Retirement System, the Retirement System for Members of the General Assembly, or the Retirement System for Judges and Solicitors that is transferred to or purchased in the system. See South Carolina Code 9-1-10 - Member: means a teacher or employee included in the membership of the system as provided in Article 5 of this chapter. See South Carolina Code 9-1-10
- Retirement: means the withdrawal from active service with a retirement allowance granted under the system. See South Carolina Code 9-1-10
- Retirement allowance: means the sum of the employer annuity and the employee annuity or any optional benefit payable in lieu of the annuity. See South Carolina Code 9-1-10
- system: means the South Carolina Retirement System established under § 9-1-20. See South Carolina Code 9-1-10
(2) dies while in service; and
(3) has either attained the age of sixty years or has accumulated fifteen years or more of creditable service, elect to receive in lieu of the accumulated contributions an allowance for life in the same amount as if the deceased member had retired at the time of the member’s death and had named the person as beneficiary under an election of Option B of § 9-1-1620(A).
For purposes of the benefit calculation, a member who is not yet eligible for service retirement is assumed to be sixty years of age.
(B) A person otherwise eligible under subsection (A) of this section to elect to receive an allowance but who has received a refund of the member’s accumulated contributions under § 9-1-1650, upon repayment of the refund to the system in a single sum, may make the election provided for in subsection (A). The monthly payments under Option B to the person date from the time of the repayment of the accumulated contributions to the system.
(C) Regardless of whether a member is in service, if a member dies before retirement and, at the time of the member’s death, was eligible to receive a service retirement allowance pursuant to § 9-1-1510 or § 9-1-1515, the person nominated by a member to receive the full amount of the member’s accumulated contributions if the member dies before retirement may elect to receive, in lieu of the accumulated contributions, an allowance for life in the same amount as if the deceased member had retired at the time of the member’s death and had named the person as beneficiary under an election of Option B of § 9-1-1620(A).
(D) If a member has designated more than one beneficiary for the receipt of the member’s accumulated contributions if the member dies before retirement, and if those beneficiaries become eligible to elect an allowance pursuant to this section upon the member’s death, all of the beneficiaries must elect the allowance in order for the allowance to become payable in lieu of the return of accumulated contributions.