(a) (1) Upon the retirement of a member whose credited service results from employment covered by:
(A) The Arkansas Public Employees' Retirement System;
(B) The State Police Retirement System;
(C) The Arkansas Teacher Retirement System;
(D) The Arkansas State Highway Employees' Retirement System;
(E) The Arkansas Judicial Retirement System;
(F) An alternate retirement plan under § 24-8-101 et seq. or § 24-9-201 et seq.; or
(G) The Arkansas Local Police and Fire Retirement System,
the amount of the member's annuity shall be based upon his or her total credited service in force at the time of the member's retirement, exclusive of any minimums.
(2) Each retirement system shall be responsible financially for only that portion of the annuity based upon the credited service in the plan or system.
(3) (A) The final average compensation on which benefits shall be determined shall be based on the period of total credited service for:
(i) The Arkansas Public Employees' Retirement System;
(ii) The State Police Retirement System;
(iii) The Arkansas Teacher Retirement System;
(iv) The Arkansas State Highway Employees' Retirement System; and
(v) The Arkansas Local Police and Fire Retirement System,
with each plan or system computing the final average compensation by the method as determined by its laws.
(B) Compensation for credited service in the Arkansas Judicial Retirement System or an alternate retirement plan under § 24-8-101 et seq. or § 24-9-201 et seq. shall not be used to determine final average compensation.
(4) The final average compensation for persons receiving benefits from the Arkansas State Highway Employees' Retirement System shall be based on the final average compensation at the date of termination of employment covered by that system.
(5) The benefit program to be applied to each portion of credited service shall be the benefit program in effect in each plan or system at the time of retirement.
(b) (1) Upon the retirement on disability or death-in-service or death in service of a member of either:
(A) The Arkansas Public Employees' Retirement System;
(B) The Arkansas Teacher Retirement System;
(C) The Arkansas State Highway Employees' Retirement System;
(D) The Arkansas Judicial Retirement System;
(E) The State Police Retirement System;
(F) An alternate retirement plan under § 24-8-101 et seq. or § 24-9-201 et seq.; or
(G) The Arkansas Local Police and Fire Retirement System,
who has credited service in more than one (1) of the plans, an annuity shall be payable based upon the member's total credited service with all systems in force at the time of retirement, with each system being responsible for the payment of such disability or death-in-service benefits as are provided by the applicable provisions of each system's laws or plan's provisions.
(2) If the greatest benefit payable to a survivor is a minimum percentage of the deceased member's final pay or a minimum dollar amount, then each reciprocal system that has a minimum benefit provision in its plan shall only pay a proportionate share of the minimum amount based on the ratio of service in the system to the total service in all reciprocal systems.
(3) A member who dies in service while a member of one (1) reciprocal system shall be considered as currently employed by all systems in which the member has credited service at the time of death.
(4) If a member has service credit in an alternate retirement plan under § 24-8-101 et seq. or § 24-9-201 et seq., disability and death-in-service benefits shall be contingent on provision of those benefits having been provided by the alternate retirement plan and having been selected by the member as a benefit.
(c) Any person retiring on or after July 1, 1982, with credited service in more than one (1) reciprocal system shall have his or her benefits recomputed based on the provisions of this section.
(d) It is the intent of this section to provide reciprocal service credits, as provided by §§ 24-2-401 -- 24-2-405, between contributory and noncontributory members of:
(1) The Arkansas Public Employees' Retirement System;
(2) The Arkansas Teacher Retirement System;
(3) The Arkansas Judicial Retirement System;
(4) The Arkansas State Highway Employees' Retirement System;
(5) The State Police Retirement System;
(6) An alternate retirement plan for a college, university, or the Department of Higher Education provided for under § 24-8-101 et seq. or for a vocational-technical school or the Department of Career Education provided for under § 24-9-201 et seq.; and
(7) The Arkansas Local Police and Fire Retirement System.
(e) A member of the Arkansas Public Employees' Retirement System who is receiving a retirement annuity from another reciprocal system as defined in subsection (d) of this section shall not be eligible to use the reciprocal provisions of this section or the reciprocal provisions of §§ 24-2-401 -- 24-2-405 to determine the benefit payable by the Arkansas Public Employees' Retirement System.
Section:Last modified: November 15, 2016