(a) Under the Act, a participant's accumulated contributions
(with interest as allowed thereon under the Act) may become payable
to a participant upon terminating subdivision employment and membership
in the system prior to retirement, as set forth in the Act, §842.108,
or may become payable to the participant's designee or estate under
the Act, §844.401, in the event of the participant's death prior
to retirement. A domestic relations order regarding a participant
who has not yet retired should clearly state that the alternate payee
is entitled to a lump sum payment equal to the amount of alternate
payee's interest in the plan as defined in §109.5(a)(2) of this
title.
(b) Under the Act, a service retirement benefit or
a disability retirement benefit may become payable to the participant
(and, upon the participant's death, to a designee) as set forth in
the Act, §§844.101 - 844.106 and §§844.301 - 844.305.
A domestic relations order regarding a participant should clearly
state that the alternate payee is entitled to receive a life annuity
based on the alternate payee's interest in the plan awarded by the
order and calculated in accordance with the terms of the plan.
(c) If an order is entered after the participant has
retired under a service or disability retirement, then the order should
clearly state that participant's annuity is divided into two single
life annuities. One single life annuity is payable to the alternate
payee based on the percent of the actuarial present value of the participant's
current annuity awarded to alternate payee under the order, and one
single life annuity is payable to the participant based on the remaining
actuarial present value of the participant's current annuity, calculated
in accordance with §109.12(d) or (e) of this title, as applicable.
(d) A Group Term Life benefit may become payable under
the Act, §844.503 or §844.504, upon the death of a participant
who was or had been employed by certain of the subdivisions participating
in the system. That benefit is not the property of a participant,
but rather is a benefit that is paid by the system as a result of
the death of a participant. If any portion of such benefit becomes
payable to an alternate payee under the express wording of a qualified
domestic relations order, it will be so paid upon the death of the
participant; however, if the domestic relations order does not specifically
provide that some portion of that benefit is to be paid to an alternate
payee, then no portion of the Group Term Life benefit shall be paid
otherwise than as set forth in the Act, §844.505.


Source Note: The provisions of this §109.6 adopted to be effective January 29, 1988, 13 TexReg 305; amended to be effective January 10, 1996, 21 TexReg 135; amended to be effective December 30, 2012, 37 TexReg 10250; amended to be effective April 30, 2015, 40 TexReg 2281