A. If a member leaves office, the member may, with the written consent of the member's spouse, if any, withdraw the member's accumulated member contributions, upon making written request in a form prescribed by the association. Upon written request of the member in the form prescribed by the association, a refund of member contributions may be made by a trustee-to-trustee transfer of the contributions from the member contribution fund directly to another qualified plan as allowed by the Internal Revenue Code of 1986. Withdrawal of member contributions shall result in forfeiture of the service credit accrued for the period during which the contributions were made.

B. A member shall, upon commencement of membership, designate a refund beneficiary who shall receive the refund of the member contributions, plus interest if any, if the member dies and no survivor pension is payable. If the member is married at the time of designation, written spousal consent shall be required if the designated refund beneficiary is a person other than the spouse. Marriage subsequent to the designation shall automatically revoke a previous designation, and the spouse shall become the refund beneficiary unless or until another designation is filed with the association. Divorce subsequent to the designation shall automatically revoke designation of the former spouse as refund beneficiary, or the right of the former spouse to be refund beneficiary if no designation has been filed, and the refund shall be paid to the deceased member's estate unless the member filed a designation of refund beneficiary subsequent to the divorce. The refund shall be paid to the refund beneficiary named in the most recent designation of refund beneficiary on file with the association unless that beneficiary is deceased. If there is not a living refund beneficiary named in the most recent designation of refund beneficiary on file with the association, the deceased member's accumulated member contributions shall be paid to the estate of the deceased member.

History: Laws 1992, ch. 118, § 6; 1995, ch. 115, § 12.

Cross references. — For the federal Internal Revenue Code, see 26 U.S.C. § 1 et seq.

The 1995 amendment, effective June 16, 1995, rewrote this section to the extent that a detailed comparison is impracticable.