West Virginia Code 18-7A-23 – Withdrawal and death benefits

(a) Benefits upon withdrawal from service prior to retirement under the provisions of this article shall be as follows:

Terms Used In West Virginia Code 18-7A-23

Accumulated contributions: means all deposits and all deductions from the gross salary of a contributor plus regular interest. See West Virginia Code 18-7A-3
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.
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 the recipient of annuity payments made under the retirement system. See West Virginia Code 18-7A-3
board: means a county board of education. See West Virginia Code 18-1-1
Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
Contributor: means a member of the retirement system who has an account in the Teachers Accumulation Fund. See West Virginia Code 18-7A-3
Employer: means the agency of and within the state which has employed or employs a member, a county board of education which has employed or employs a member, or an electing charter school which has employed or employs a member. See West Virginia Code 18-7A-3
Fiscal year: The fiscal year is the accounting period for the government. For the federal government, this begins on October 1 and ends on September 30. The fiscal year is designated by the calendar year in which it ends; for example, fiscal year 2006 begins on October 1, 2005 and ends on September 30, 2006.
in writing: includes any representation of words, letters, or figures, whether by printing, engraving, writing, or otherwise. See West Virginia Code 2-2-10
Member: means any person who has accumulated contributions standing to his or her credit in the State Teachers Retirement System. See West Virginia Code 18-7A-3
Nonteaching member: means any person, except a teacher member, who is regularly employed for full-time service by: (A) Any county board of education or educational services cooperative. See West Virginia Code 18-7A-3
Plan year: means the 12-month period commencing on July 1 and ending the following June 30 of any designated year. See West Virginia Code 18-7A-3
Refund beneficiary: means the estate of a deceased contributor or a person he or she has nominated as beneficiary of his or her contributions by written designation duly executed and filed with the retirement board. See West Virginia Code 18-7A-3
Retirant: means any member who commences an annuity payable by the retirement system. See West Virginia Code 18-7A-3
Retirement board: means the Consolidated Public Retirement Board created pursuant to §. See West Virginia Code 18-7A-3
Retirement system: means the State Teachers Retirement System established by this article. See West Virginia Code 18-7A-3
State: when applied to a part of the United States and not restricted by the context, includes the District of Columbia and the several territories, and the words "United States" also include the said district and territories. See West Virginia Code 2-2-10
Teacher: means a teacher, supervisor, principal, superintendent, public school librarian or any other person regularly employed for instructional purposes in a public school in this state. See West Virginia Code 18-1-1
Total service: means all service as a teacher or nonteacher while a member of the retirement system since last becoming a member and, in addition thereto, credit for prior service, if any. See West Virginia Code 18-7A-3

(1) A contributor who withdraws from service for any cause other than death, disability or retirement shall, upon application, be paid his or her accumulated contributions up to the end of the fiscal year preceding the year in which application is made, after offset of any outstanding loan balance, plus accrued loan interest, pursuant to section thirty-four of this article, but in no event shall interest be paid beyond the end of five years following the year in which the last contribution was made: Provided, That the contributor, at the time of application, is then no longer under contract, verbal or otherwise, to serve as a teacher; or

(2) Except as provided in section twenty-five-b of this article, if the inactive member has completed twenty years of total service, he or she may elect to receive at age sixty an annuity which shall be computed as provided in this article: Provided, That if the inactive member has completed at least five, but fewer than twenty, years of total service in this state, he or she may elect to receive at age sixty-two an annuity which shall be computed as provided in this article. The inactive member must notify the retirement board in writing concerning the election. If the inactive member has completed fewer than five years of service in this state, he or she shall be subject to the provisions as outlined in subdivision (1) of this subsection.

(b) Benefits upon the death of a contributor prior to retirement under the provisions of this article shall be paid as follows:

(1) If the contributor was at least fifty years old and if his or her total service as a teacher or nonteaching member was at least twenty-five years at the time of his or her death, then the surviving spouse of the deceased, provided the spouse is designated as the sole primary refund beneficiary, is eligible for an annuity computed as though the deceased were actually a retirant at the time of death and had selected a survivorship option which pays the spouse the same monthly amount which would have been received by the deceased; or

(2) If the facts do not permit payment under subdivision (1) of this subsection, then the following sum shall be paid to the refund beneficiary of the contributor: (A) The contributor's accumulated contributions up to the plan year of his or her death plus an amount equal to his or her member contributions: Provided, That the latter sum shall emanate from the Employer's Accumulation Fund; and (B) the refund beneficiary of any individual who became a member of the retirement system as a result of the voluntary transfer contemplated in article seven-d of this chapter shall also be paid the member contributions plus the vested portion of employer contributions made on his or her behalf to the Teachers' Defined Contribution Retirement System, plus any earnings thereon, as of June 30, 2008, as stated by the retirement board.

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