Terms Used In South Carolina Code > Title 9 > Chapter 18 - Qualified Domestic Relations Orders

• Administrator: means the director of the retirement systems. See South Carolina Code 9-18-10
• Alternate payee: means a spouse or former spouse of a member or retired member who is recognized by a domestic relations order as having a right to receive all or a portion of the benefits payable by a retirement system with respect to such member or retired member. See South Carolina Code 9-18-10
• Amendment: A proposal to alter the text of a pending bill or other measure by striking out some of it, by inserting new language, or both. Before an amendment becomes part of the measure, thelegislature must agree to it.
• Appeal: A request made after a trial, asking another court (usually the court of appeals) to decide whether the trial was conducted properly. To make such a request is "to appeal" or "to take an appeal." One who appeals is called the appellant.
• Appropriate supervisory office: means :
  
  (a) the State Ethics Commission for all candidates for public office in this State except for members or staff, including staff elected to serve as officers of or candidates for the office of State Senator or State Representative;
  
  (b) the Senate Ethics Committee for members or staff, including staff elected to serve as officers, of or candidates for the office of State Senator, and the House of Representatives Ethics Committee for members or staff, including staff elected to serve as officers, of or candidates for the office of State Representative;
  
  (c) the State Ethics Commission for all committees, except legislative caucus committees, supporting or opposing a ballot measure or supporting or opposing a candidate;
  
  (d) the Senate Ethics Committee for all legislative caucus committees and legislative special interest caucuses affiliated with the Senate, the House of Representatives Ethics Committee for all legislative caucus committees and legislative special interest caucuses affiliated with the House of Representatives, and both ethics committees for all legislative caucus committees and legislative special interest caucuses affiliated with both houses. See South Carolina Code 8-13-1300
• Ballot measure: means a referendum, proposition, or measure submitted to voters for their approval. See South Carolina Code 8-13-1300
• Ballot measure committee: means :
  
  (a) an association, club, an organization, or a group of persons which, to influence the outcome of a ballot measure, receives contributions or makes expenditures in excess of two thousand five hundred dollars in the aggregate during an election cycle;
  
  (b) a person, other than an individual, who, to influence the outcome of a ballot measure, makes contributions aggregating at least fifty thousand dollars during an election cycle to or at the request of a ballot measure committee; or
  
  (c) a person, other than an individual, who, to influence the outcome of a ballot measure, makes independent expenditures aggregating two thousand five hundred dollars or more during an election cycle. See South Carolina Code 8-13-1300
• 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}
• Board: means the Board of Directors of the South Carolina Public Employee Benefit Authority. See South Carolina Code 9-18-10
• Business: means a corporation, partnership, proprietorship, firm, an enterprise, a franchise, an association, organization, or a self-employed individual. See South Carolina Code 8-13-1300
• Candidate: means : (a) a person who seeks appointment, nomination for election, or election to a statewide or local office, or authorizes or knowingly permits the collection or disbursement of money for the promotion of his candidacy or election; (b) a person who is exploring whether or not to seek election at the state or local level; or (c) a person on whose behalf write-in votes are solicited if the person has knowledge of such solicitation. See South Carolina Code 8-13-1300
• Caucus: From the Algonquian Indian language, a caucus meant "to meet together." An informal organization of members of the legislature that exists to discuss issues of mutual concern and possibly to perform legislative research and policy planning for its members. There are regional, political or ideological, ethnic, and economic-based caucuses.
• Committee: includes a party committee, a legislative caucus committee, a noncandidate committee, or a committee that is not a campaign committee for a candidate but that is organized for the purpose of influencing an election. See South Carolina Code 8-13-1300
• Contribution: means a gift, subscription, loan, guarantee upon which collection is made, forgiveness of a loan, an advance, in-kind contribution or expenditure, a deposit of money, or anything of value made to a candidate or committee to influence an election; or payment or compensation for the personal service of another person which is rendered for any purpose to a candidate or committee without charge, whether any of the above are made or offered directly or indirectly. See South Carolina Code 8-13-1300
• Corporation: means an entity organized in the corporate form under federal law or the laws of any state. See South Carolina Code 8-13-1300
• Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
• Death benefit: means any benefit payable upon the death of a member under Sections 9-1-1650, 9-1-1660, 9-8-110(1), (3), or (4), 9-9-100(1), (2), or (3), 9-11-110, or 9-11-130. See South Carolina Code 9-18-10
• Disability benefit: means any benefit payable to a member or retired member on account of his disability under Sections 9-1-1540, 9-8-60, 9-9-65, or 9-11-80. See South Carolina Code 9-18-10
• Domestic relations order: means any judgement, decree, or order, including approval of a property settlement agreement, which relates to the provision of alimony payments or marital property rights to a spouse or former spouse of a member or retired member, and is made pursuant to a domestic relations law, including a law of this State or of another state. See South Carolina Code 9-18-10
• Election: means :
  
  (a) a general, special, primary, or runoff election;
  
  (b) a convention or caucus of a political party held to nominate a candidate; or
  
  (c) the election of delegates to a constitutional convention for proposing amendments to the Constitution of the United States or the Constitution of this State. See South Carolina Code 8-13-1300
• Elective office: includes the office of probate judge. See South Carolina Code 8-13-1300
• Expenditure: means a purchase, payment, loan, forgiveness of a loan, an advance, in-kind contribution or expenditure, a deposit, transfer of funds, gift of money, or anything of value for any purpose. See South Carolina Code 8-13-1300
• Family member: means an individual who is:
  
  (a) the spouse, parent, brother, sister, child, mother-in-law, father-in-law, son-in-law, daughter-in-law, grandparent, or grandchild; or
  
  (b) a member of the individual's immediate family. See South Carolina Code 8-13-1300
• Individual: means one human being. See South Carolina Code 8-13-1300
• Judgement: The official decision of a court finally determining the respective rights and claims of the parties to a suit.
• Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
• Loan: means a transfer of money, property, guarantee, or anything of value in exchange for an obligation, conditional or not, to repay in whole or in part. See South Carolina Code 8-13-1300
• Member: means any person included in the membership of the retirement system. See South Carolina Code 9-18-10
• Optional form death benefit: means any periodic benefit payable upon the death of a member or retired member on account of the member's selection of an optional form of allowance under Sections 9-1-1620, 9-8-70, 9-9-70, or 9-11-150. See South Carolina Code 9-18-10
• Person: means an individual, a proprietorship, firm, partnership, joint venture, joint stock company, syndicate, business trust, an estate, a company, committee, an association, a corporation, club, labor organization, or any other organization or group of persons acting in concert. See South Carolina Code 8-13-1300
• Public employee: means a person employed by the State, a county, a municipality, or a political subdivision thereof. See South Carolina Code 8-13-1300
• Public official: means an elected or appointed official of the State, a county, a municipality or a political subdivision thereof, including candidates for the office. See South Carolina Code 8-13-1300
• Qualified domestic relations order: means a domestic relations order which creates or recognizes the existence of an alternate payee's right, or assigns to an alternate payee the right, to receive all or a portion of a benefit payable with respect to a member or retired member under a retirement system, which directs that retirement system to disburse benefits to the alternate payee, and which meets the requirements of this chapter. See South Carolina Code 9-18-10
• Retirement benefit: means any benefit payable to a retired member and which is based on the member's age, service, pay, or accumulated contributions. See South Carolina Code 9-18-10
• Settlement: Parties to a lawsuit resolve their difference without having a trial. Settlements often involve the payment of compensation by one party in satisfaction of the other party's claims.
• Statewide office: means an elective office other than a federal office eligible to be voted upon by all electors of the State. See South Carolina Code 8-13-1300
• system: means the South Carolina Retirement System, Retirement System for Judges and Solicitors of the State of South Carolina, Retirement System for Members of the General Assembly of the State of South Carolina, or South Carolina Police Officers Retirement System. See South Carolina Code 9-18-10