2017 Arizona Revised Statutes
Title 38 - Public Officers and Employees
§ 38-801 Definitions

38-801. Definitions

In this article, unless the context otherwise requires:

1. " Accumulated contributions" means the sum of all member contributions deducted from the member's salary pursuant to section 38-810, subsection A plus the amount transferred to the fund on behalf of the member plus the amount deposited in the fund pursuant to section 38-816.

2. " Actuarial equivalent" means equality in present value of the aggregate amounts expected to be received under two different forms of payment, based on mortality and interest assumptions adopted by the board.

3. " Alternate payee" means the spouse or former spouse of a participant as designated in a domestic relations order.

4. " Alternate payee's portion" means benefits that are payable to an alternate payee pursuant to a plan approved domestic relations order.

5. " Average yearly salary" means the result obtained by dividing the total salary paid to an employee during a considered period by the number of years, including fractional years, in which the salary was received. The considered period shall be:

(a) For an elected official who becomes a member of the plan before January 1, 2012, the three consecutive years within the last ten completed years of credited service as an elected official that yield the highest average. If a member does not have three consecutive years of credited service as an elected official, the considered period is the member's last consecutive period of employment with a plan employer immediately before retirement.

(b) For an elected official who becomes a member of the plan on or after January 1, 2012, the five consecutive years within the last ten completed years of credited service as an elected official that yield the highest average. If a member does not have five consecutive years of credited service as an elected official, the considered period is the member's last consecutive period of employment with a plan employer immediately before retirement.

6. " Board" means the board of trustees of the system.

7. " Credited service" means the number of whole and fractional years of a member's service as an elected official after the elected official's effective date of participation for which member and employer contributions are on deposit with the fund, plus credited service transferred to the plan from another retirement system or plan for public employees of this state, plus service as an elected official before the elected official's effective date of participation that is being funded pursuant to a joinder agreement pursuant to section 38-815 or service that was redeemed pursuant to section 38-816. Credited service does not include periods of service for which an active member is uncompensated by the employer and for which no contributions to the plan are made.

8. " Cure period" means the ninety-day period in which a participant or alternate payee may submit an amended domestic relations order and request a determination, calculated from the time the plan issues a determination finding that a previously submitted domestic relations order did not qualify as a plan approved domestic relations order.

9. " Determination" means a written document that indicates to a participant and alternate payee whether a domestic relations order qualifies as a plan approved domestic relations order.

10. " Determination period" means the ninety-day period in which the plan must review a domestic relations order that is submitted by a participant or alternate payee to determine whether the domestic relations order qualifies as a plan approved domestic relations order, calculated from the time the plan mails a notice of receipt to the participant and alternate payee.

11. " Direct rollover" means a payment by the plan to an eligible retirement plan that is specified by the distributee.

12. " Distributee" means a member, a member's surviving spouse or a member's spouse or former spouse who is the alternate payee under a plan approved domestic relations order.

13. " Domestic relations order" means an order of a court of this state that is made pursuant to the domestic relations laws of this state and that creates or recognizes the existence of an alternate payee's right to, or assigns to an alternate payee the right to, receive a portion of the benefits payable to a participant.

14. " Effective date of participation" means August 7, 1985, except with respect to employers and their elected officials whose contributions to the plan commence after that date, in which case the effective date of their participation in the plan is specified in the applicable joinder agreement.

15. " Elected official" means:

(a) Every elected official of this state who was a member of the plan on December 31, 2013.

(b) Every elected official of each county of this state who was a member of the plan on December 31, 2013.

(c) Every justice of the supreme court, every judge of the court of appeals, every judge of the superior court and every full-time superior court commissioner, except full-time superior court commissioners who failed to make a timely election of membership under the judges' retirement plan, repealed on August 7, 1985, who was a member of the plan on December 31, 2013.

(d) The administrator of the board if the administrator is a natural person but only if the administrator is employed by the board before January 1, 2012.

(e) Each elected official of an incorporated city or town whose employer has executed a proper joinder agreement for coverage of its elected officials and who was a member of the plan on December 31, 2013.

16. " Eligible child" means an unmarried child of a deceased active or retired member who meets one of the following qualifications:

(a) Is under eighteen years of age.

(b) Is at least eighteen years of age and under twenty-three years of age only during any period that the child is a full-time student.

(c) Is under a disability that began before the child attained twenty-three years of age and remains a dependent of the surviving spouse or guardian.

17. " Eligible retirement plan" means any of the following that accepts a distributee's eligible rollover distribution:

(a) An individual retirement account described in section 408(a) of the internal revenue code.

(b) An individual retirement annuity described in section 408(b) of the internal revenue code.

(c) An annuity plan described in section 403(a) of the internal revenue code.

(d) A qualified trust described in section 401(a) of the internal revenue code.

(e) An annuity contract described in section 403(b) of the internal revenue code.

(f) An eligible deferred compensation plan described in section 457(b) of the internal revenue code that is maintained by a state, a political subdivision of a state or any agency or instrumentality of a state or a political subdivision of a state and that agrees to separately account for amounts transferred into the eligible deferred compensation plan from this plan.

18. " Eligible rollover distribution" means a payment to a distributee, but does not include any of the following:

(a) Any distribution that is one of a series of substantially equal periodic payments made not less frequently than annually for the life or life expectancy of the member or the joint lives or joint life expectancies of the member and the member's beneficiary or for a specified period of ten years or more.

(b) Any distribution to the extent the distribution is required under section 401(a)(9) of the internal revenue code.

(c) The portion of any distribution that is not includable in gross income.

(d) Any distribution made to satisfy the requirements of section 415 of the internal revenue code.

(e) Hardship distributions.

(f) Similar items designated by the commissioner of the United States internal revenue service in revenue rulings, notices and other guidance published in the internal revenue bulletin.

19. " Employer" means a department, agency or political subdivision of this state that makes employer contributions to the plan pursuant to section 38-810 on behalf of an elected official who participates in the plan.

20. " Fund" means the elected officials' retirement plan fund.

21. " Notice of receipt" means a written document that is issued by the plan to a participant and alternate payee and that states that the plan has received a domestic relations order and a request for a determination that the domestic relations order is a plan approved domestic relations order.

22. " Participant" means a member who is subject to a domestic relations order.

23. " Participant's portion" means benefits that are payable to a participant pursuant to a plan approved domestic relations order.

24. " Pension" means a series of monthly payments to a person who is entitled to receive benefits under the plan.

25. " Personal representative" means the personal representative of a deceased alternate payee.

26. " Physician" means a physician who is licensed pursuant to title 32, chapter 13 or 17.

27. " Plan" means the elected officials' retirement plan.

28. " Plan approved domestic relations order" means a domestic relations order that the plan approves as meeting all the requirements for a plan approved domestic relations order as otherwise prescribed in this article.

29. " Plan year" or " fiscal year" means the period beginning on July 1 of any year and ending on June 30 of the next succeeding year.

30. " Retired member" means a person who is being paid a pension based on the person's credited service as a member of the plan.

31. " Segregated funds" means the amount of benefits that would currently be payable to an alternate payee pursuant to a domestic relations order under review by the plan, or a domestic relations order submitted to the plan that failed to qualify as a plan approved domestic relations order, if the domestic relations order were determined to be a plan approved domestic relations order.

32. " System" means the public safety personnel retirement system.