161.611 Supplemental retirement benefit plan -- Purpose -- Administration -- Eligibility -- Payments. (1) The board of trustees is authorized to provide a supplemental retirement benefit plan for the sole purpose of enabling the employer to apply the same formula for determining benefits payable to all members of the retirement system employed by the employer, whose benefits under the retirement system are limited by Section 415 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended from time to time. This plan is intended to constitute a qualified governmental excess benefit plan as described in Section 415 of the Internal Revenue Code. (2) The board of trustees shall administer this plan and have full discretionary fiduciary authority to determine all questions in connection with the plan. The board of trustees may adopt procedural rules and administrative regulations and may employ and rely on any legal counsel, actuaries, accountants, and agents as it deems advisable to assist in the administration of this plan. (3) All members and retired former members in the retirement system shall be eligible to participate in this plan whenever their benefits under the retirement system would exceed the limitation on benefits imposed by Section 415 of the Internal Revenue Code. (4) On or after the effective date of this plan, the employer shall pay to each eligible member in the retirement system who retires on or after that date and to each former member who retired before that date and his or her beneficiaries a supplemental pension benefit, equal to the amount by which the benefit that would have been payable under the retirement system, without regard to any provision therein incorporating the limitation on benefits imposed by Section 415 of the Internal Revenue Code, exceeds the benefit actually payable, taking into account the limitation imposed on the retirement system by Section 415 of the code. These supplemental pension benefits shall be computed and payable under the same terms and conditions and to the same person as the benefits payable to, or on account of, an eligible member under the retirement system. (5) Benefits payable under this plan shall not be subject to the dollar limit applicable to eligible deferred compensation plans under Section 457 of the Internal Revenue Code, nor to the "substantial risk or forfeiture" rules of Section 457(f) of the code applicable to ineligible deferred compensation plans. In addition, benefits payable under this plan shall not be taken into account in determining whether any other plan of the employer is an eligible deferred compensation plan under Section 457 of the code. (6) Funding of benefits payable under this plan shall be provided by the state, as employer, and shall be segregated from funds that are maintained by the retirement system for payment of the regular benefits provided by the retirement system. The employer may establish a grantor trust for payment of benefits provided under this plan, with the employer treated as "grantor" thereof for purposes of Section 677 of the Internal Revenue Code. The rights of any person to receive benefits under this plan are limited to those of a general creditor of the employer. Effective: July 1, 2002 History: Amended 2002 Ky. Acts ch. 275, sec. 26, effective July 1, 2002. -- Created 2000 Ky. Acts ch. 498, sec. 1, effective July 1, 2000.