2006 Louisiana Laws - RS 11:1141 — Retirement benefits; application; eligibility requirements; effective date; cancellation

PART IV.  BENEFITS

§1141.  Retirement benefits; application; eligibility requirements; effective date; cancellation

A.  Any member may retire upon written application to the board of trustees, if the member at the time of application has attained the age of sixty years and has credit for ten years of accredited service or has attained the age of fifty-five years and has credit for twenty-five or more years of accredited service or at any age with thirty or more years of accredited service.  An application for retirement shall be officially filed with the board when received in the office of the director.  Retirement benefits shall become effective as of the date an application for retirement is filed in the office of the director or the day after the member terminates from service, whichever is later.  A member may only cancel his application for retirement prior to negotiating, cashing, or depositing any benefit check including an estimated benefit check.

B.  Notwithstanding the provisions of Subsection A of this Section, in the event a member of this system files an application for regular retirement, or disability retirement with his employer which is a reporting agency and thereafter terminates his employment, or files an application for retirement to participate in the Deferred Retirement Option Plan with his employer which is a reporting agency and thereafter continues his employment while participating in the Deferred Retirement Option Plan with said employer and through error the application is not promptly sent to this retirement system, upon receipt of the application by this system, the board of trustees is hereby authorized upon satisfactory proof  to it, to pay the retirement benefit, to pay the disability retirement benefit, or to begin making payments on behalf of the member into the Deferred Retirement Option Plan Account based on an effective date of retirement not more than ninety days prior to the actual receipt of the application for retirement in the office of the system, but in no event prior to the date of termination of employment.

C.(1)(a)  Notwithstanding the provisions of Subsection A of this Section, any member shall be eligible for retirement if he has twenty years of service credit at any age, exclusive of military service and unused annual and sick leave, but any person retiring under this Subsection shall have his benefit inclusive of military service credit and allowable unused annual and sick leave actuarially reduced from the earliest age that he would normally become eligible for a regular retirement benefit pursuant to Subsection A of this Section if he had continued in service to that age.

(b)  Any member who retires under the provisions of this Section shall not be eligible for reemployment by the agency from which he retired, the Louisiana School Employees' Retirement System, any public school system, or any special education district for a period of five years.

(2)  Any person who elects to retire under the provisions of this Section shall have included in the actuarial reduction of his benefits such an amount, subject to any change in premium amounts or classifications that are applicable to other retirees, which shall be proportionate to the cost to the Louisiana School Employees' Retirement System resulting from retirement under this Section, and that amount shall be transferred to the Louisiana School Employees' Retirement System to offset such cost, until he attains the earliest eligibility for regular retirement, at which time his benefits shall be the same as a person who retired under the provisions of regular retirement.

D.  The payments of benefits to or on behalf of a member shall commence not later than April first following the calendar year in which the member retires, or attains age seventy and one-half years, whichever is later.

Acts 2001, No. 265, §1, eff. July 1, 2001.