2021 Georgia Code
Title 47 - Retirement and Pensions
Chapter 3 - Teachers Retirement System of Georgia
Article 2 - Creation, Administration, and Management of the Assets of the Retirement System
§ 47-3-23. Designation and Duties of an Actuary for the Board of Trustees; Periodic Actuarial Investigation and Recommendations; Calculation Tables and Regular Interest Rate; Annual Valuation

1. The board of trustees shall designate an actuary who shall be the technical adviser of the board of trustees on matters regarding the operation of the funds created by this chapter and who shall perform such duties as are required in connection therewith.
2. From time to time, but at least once in every five-year period, the actuary shall make an actuarial investigation into the mortality, service, and compensation experience of the members and beneficiaries of the retirement system and recommend for adoption by the board of trustees, mortality, service, and other tables needed in the operation of the retirement system. Taking into account the results of such investigations, the board of trustees from time to time shall adopt for the retirement system such mortality, service, and other tables as it shall deem necessary for use in all calculations required in connection with this retirement system. The board of trustees shall also determine from time to time the rates of regular interest for use in all calculations required in connection with the retirement system, limited to a minimum of 2 percent.
3. On the basis of regular interest and the tables last adopted by the board of trustees, the actuary shall make annual valuations of the contingent assets and liabilities of the retirement system.

(Ga. L. 1943, p. 640, § 6; Ga. L. 1971, p. 413, § 1; Ga. L. 1975, p. 1637, § 4; Ga. L. 1978, p. 1441, § 1; Ga. L. 1982, p. 3, § 47; Ga. L. 1982, p. 978, §§ 1, 2; Ga. L. 2010, p. 1207, § 65/SB 436.)

The 2010 amendment, effective July 1, 2010, substituted "adviser" for "advisor" in the middle of subsection (a).

- Ga. L. 2010, p. 1207, § 1, not codified by the General Assembly, provides that: "The intent of this Act is to repeal obsolete and inoperative provisions and to make certain stylistic corrections in Title 47 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated. Nothing in this Act shall deny, abridge, increase, renew, revive, or on any way affect any right, benefit, option, credit, or election to which any person was entitled pursuant to such title on June 30, 2010, and the board of trustees of each public retirement system is authorized and directed to provide by regulation for the continuation of any such right, benefit, option, credit, or election not otherwise covered in this Act; provided, however, that any such right, benefit, option, credit, or election shall be subject to the statutory provisions in effect on June 30, 2010."

OPINIONS OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL

Trustees may establish different interest rates for actuarial calculations.

- Reading Ga. L. 1975, p. 1637, § 4 (see O.C.G.A. § 47-3-23) in context with Ga. L. 1943, p. 640 et seq. (see O.C.G.A. Ch. 3, T. 47), the board of trustees may establish different rates of regular interest for use in connection with different mathematical calculations made by the retirement system. 1977 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 77-74.

RESEARCH REFERENCES

Am. Jur. 2d.

- 60A Am. Jur. 2d, Pensions and Retirement Funds, § 1244 et seq.

- 67 C.J.S., Officers and Public Employees, § 313. 78 C.J.S., Schools and School Districts, § 485.

JUDICIAL DECISIONS

Use of mortality tables in determining actuarial equivalence.

- Although under O.C.G.A. § 47-3-23(b), the Board of Trustees of the Teachers Retirement System of Georgia adopted new mortality tables every four years, the retirees' optional-plan benefits were erroneously calculated using option factors based upon a mortality table and interest rate adopted in 1983; in determining actuarial equivalence between the optional-plan benefits and the maximum-plan benefits as required under O.C.G.A. § 47-3-121(a), O.C.G.A. §§ 47-3-1(2) and47-3-23(b) required that the most recent mortality tables be used for such purposes. Plymel v. Teachers Ret. Sys., 281 Ga. 409, 637 S.E.2d 379 (2006).