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2005 California Government Code Sections 75070-75074 Article 3.5. Payment of Benefits
GOVERNMENT CODESECTION 75070-75074
75070. In lieu of the retirement allowance for his life alone, a judge may elect, or revoke or change a previous election prior to the approval of the previous election, to have the actuarial equivalent of his retirement allowance as of the date of retirement applied to a lesser retirement allowance, in accordance with one of the optional settlements specified in Section 75071. That election, revocation, or change of election shall be made by a writing filed with the Judges' Retirement System prior to the making of the first payment on account of any retirement allowance. 75071. (a) Optional settlement one consists of the right to have a retirement allowance paid to the judge for life and if he or she dies before receiving the amount of his or her accumulated contributions at retirement, to have the balance at death paid to his or her designated beneficiary or, if no beneficiary designation is in effect on the date of death, to his or her estate. (b) (1) Optional settlement two consists of the right to have a retirement allowance paid to him or her for life and thereafter to his or her designated beneficiary for life. (2) If the judge's designated beneficiary predeceases the judge and the judge elected this optional settlement to be effective on or after January 1, 2002, the judge's allowance shall be adjusted effective the first day of the month following the death of the beneficiary to reflect the benefit that would have been paid had the judge not elected an optional settlement. (3) If the marriage of a retired judge is dissolved or annulled or if the retired judge and his or her beneficiary spouse are legally separated and the judgment dividing their community property awards the total interest in this system to the retired judge, and the retired judge elected this optional settlement to be effective on or after January 1, 2002, the retired judge's allowance shall be adjusted effective the first day of the month following the filing of the judgment with the board to reflect the benefit that would have been paid had the judge not elected an optional settlement. (c) (1) Optional settlement three consists of the right to have a retirement allowance paid him or her for life, and thereafter to have one-half of his or her retirement allowance paid to his or her designated beneficiary for life. (2) If the judge's designated beneficiary predeceases the judge and the judge elected this optional settlement to be effective on or after January 1, 2002, the judge's allowance shall be adjusted effective the first day of the month following the death of the beneficiary to reflect the benefit that would have been paid had the judge not elected an optional settlement. (3) If the marriage of a retired judge is dissolved or annulled or if the retired judge and his or her beneficiary spouse are legally separated and the judgment dividing their community property awards the total interest in this system to the retired judge, and the retired judge elected this optional settlement to be effective on or after January 1, 2002, the retired judge's allowance shall be adjusted effective the first day of the month following the filing of the judgment with the board to reflect the benefit that would have been paid had the judge not elected an optional settlement. (d) Optional settlement four consists of other benefits that are the actuarial equivalent of his or her retirement allowance, that he or she may select subject to the approval of the Judges' Retirement System. (e) When a judge elects, on or after January 1, 2003, to receive benefits provided by paragraph (2) of subdivision (b) or paragraph (2) of subdivision (c), and the judge and his or her optional settlement beneficiary both die before receiving in annuity payments the full amount of the judge's accumulated contributions at retirement, the balance of the judge's accumulated contributions shall be paid to the beneficiary designated by the judge. If the judge had no designated beneficiary in effect on the date of death, payment shall be made to the judge's estate. 75072. If, during the life of a judge who has elected to receive an optional settlement in lieu of a retirement allowance for his or her life alone, or during the life of a beneficiary under an optional settlement upon whose life contingency the optional settlement elected depends, the compensation payable to the judge holding the judicial office to which the retired judge was last appointed or elected by the people prior to his or her retirement is increased, the amounts payable to the retired judge or to his or her beneficiary, or both, shall be recomputed and increased to be the actuarial equivalent of the increased amount of the retirement allowance to which the retired judge would be entitled if he or she had not elected an optional settlement. However, this section does not give any retired judge or his or her beneficiary any claim against the state for any increase in retirement allowance or other benefit for time prior to the increase in the compensation of the incumbent judge. 75073. A judge who elects to receive optional settlement two or three may concurrently and irrevocably elect to waive the provision for an increase to his or her allowance, as specified in subdivisions (b) and (c) of Section 75071, and shall, instead, have his or her allowance based upon the waiver of this benefit. 75074. (a) Except as provided in subdivision (b), a judge may, at any time, including, but not limited to, at any time after reaching retirement age, designate a beneficiary to receive the benefits as may be payable to his or her beneficiary under this article, by a writing filed with the board. (b) No designation may be made in derogation of the community property share of any nonmember spouse when any benefit is derived, in whole or in part, from community property contributions or service credited during the period of marriage, unless the nonmember spouse has previously obtained an alternative order for division pursuant to Section 2610 of the Family Code. (c) The designation, subject to conditions imposed by board rule, may be by class, in which case the members of the class at the time of the judge's death shall be entitled as beneficiaries. The designation shall also be subject to the board's conclusive determination, upon evidence satisfactory to it, of the existence, identity, or other facts relating to entitlement of any person designated as beneficiary, and payment made by this system in reliance on any determination made in good faith, notwithstanding that it may not have discovered a beneficiary otherwise entitled to share in the benefit, shall constitute a complete discharge and release of this system for further liability for the benefit.
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