Notwithstanding the provisions of § 9-11-40, an employer who maintains a local retirement system for firefighters before the date of admission to the Police Officers’ Retirement System may transfer the local system to the Police Officers’ Retirement System by meeting the requirements of one of the following items:

(1)(a) The employer may require all active members and retirees or their beneficiaries of that local system to become members or beneficiaries of the South Carolina Police Officers’ Retirement System on the date of admission. The date of admission is April 1, 1989, or at the beginning of any quarter thereafter. If this option is exercised, all assets of the local retirement system must be transferred to this system as of the date of admission. Any actuarial accrued liabilities realized by the system on account of the transfer, including retiree liability, as determined by the board‘s actuary and not met by transferred assets, must be paid by the employer in a lump sum or in installments over a period not to exceed ten years, as the board under uniform regulations may determine. The asset transfer and employer payment, if required by this subitem, is in lieu of any other payments that would otherwise be required by this subitem.

(b) Retirees or their beneficiaries transferred to this system shall receive benefits equal to those they received under the former local retirement system plus increases provided by law for beneficiaries of this system on or after the date of admission.

(c) If a retiree on the date of transfer is employed in employment covered by the system, the earnings limitation of § 9-11-150(4) does not apply while the retiree remains in the same covered employment.

(2)(a) The employer may require all active members of the local retirement system for firefighters to become members of the South Carolina Police Officers’ Retirement System on the date of admission. The date of admission is April 1, 1990, or at the beginning of any quarter thereafter. If this option is exercised, all assets of the local retirement system including accumulated member contributions, if any, not needed to meet the local retirement system’s retiree liability, if any, must be transferred to this system as of the date of admission. Any actuarial accrued liabilities realized by the system on account of the transfer, as determined by the board’s actuary and not met by transferred assets, must be paid by the employer in a lump sum or in installments over a period not to exceed ten years, as the board under uniform rules may determine. The asset transfer and employer payment, if required by this subitem, is in lieu of any other payments that would otherwise be required by this subitem.

(b) The board’s actuary shall determine the amount of assets necessary to be retained to provide the funds to meet retiree liability. The amount determined must be retained and escrowed by the employer. The employer has the continuing responsibility to insure that retirement benefits of current retirees continue at current levels, including cost-of-living increases in future years as provided in the local retirement system, until the death of the last survivor.