H-2943.1 _______________________________________________
HOUSE BILL 2215
_______________________________________________
State of Washington 53rd Legislature 1994 Regular Session
By Representatives Appelwick and Padden
Read first time 01/11/94. Referred to Committee on Judiciary.
AN ACT Relating to public employment; and amending RCW 41.40.660.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:
Sec. 1. RCW 41.40.660 and 1990 c 249 s 10 are each amended to read as follows:
(1) Upon retirement for service as prescribed in RCW 41.40.630 or retirement for disability under RCW 41.40.670, a member shall elect to have the retirement allowance paid pursuant to one of the following options, calculated so as to be actuarially equivalent to each other.
(a) Standard allowance. A member electing this option shall receive a retirement allowance payable throughout such member's life. However, if the retiree dies before the total of the retirement allowance paid to such retiree equals the amount of such retiree's accumulated contributions at the time of retirement, then the balance shall be paid to such person or persons having an insurable interest in the retiree's life as the retiree shall have nominated by written designation duly executed and filed with the department; or if there be no such designated person or persons still living at the time of the retiree's death, then to the surviving spouse; or if there be neither such designated person or persons still living at the time of death nor a surviving spouse, then to the retiree's legal representative.
(b) The department shall adopt rules that allow a member to select a retirement option that pays the member a reduced retirement allowance and upon death, such portion of the member's reduced retirement allowance as the department by rule designates shall be continued throughout the life of and paid to a person who has an insurable interest in the member's life. Such person shall be nominated by the member by written designation duly executed and filed with the department at the time of retirement. The options adopted by the department shall include, but are not limited to, a joint and one hundred percent survivor option and a joint and fifty percent survivor option.
(2)(a) A member,
if married, must provide the written consent of his or her spouse to the option
selected under this section, except as provided in (b) of this subsection.
If a member is married and both the member and the member's spouse do not ((given
[give])) give written consent to an option under this section, the
department shall pay a joint and fifty percent survivor benefit calculated to
be actuarially equivalent to the benefit options available under subsection (1)
of this section unless spousal consent is not required as provided in (b) of
this subsection.
(b) If a copy of a dissolution order, as defined in RCW 41.50.500, has been filed with the department prior to a member's retirement and the dissolution order requires the member to select his or her spouse or ex-spouse as a survivor beneficiary, the department shall honor the designation as if made by the member under subsection (1) of this section. The spousal consent provisions of (a) of this subsection do not apply where a dissolution order requires the member to select his or her spouse or ex-spouse as survivor beneficiary. Good faith reliance by the department on the lack of an applicable dissolution order when neither party has filed such a dissolution order with the department shall not subject the department to liability.
--- END ---