Sec.10-183l-16. Coparticipant optional payment form

(a) Procedure for electing a coparticipant option.

(1) Form for Making Election. Election of a Coparticipant Option is accomplished by the filing with the Teachers' Retirement Board at its offices in Hartford an official form provided by the board which states the name, address, date of birth and relationship to the member of the person designated as the member's coparticipant, states the percentage of the member's monthly retirement benefit which is to be continued to the coparticipant upon the death of the member, and contains the signature of the member and a witness and the date the form is executed.

(2) Coparticipant. A member may designate as coparticipant a spouse, a brother or sister, or a parent if such parent is at the time the election form is filed dependent for support on the member. Election of a parent should be accompanied by a copy of the most recent Federal Income Tax form filed by the member and on which the parent has been identified as a dependent, or such other evidence of dependency which will satisfy the Board that the designated coparticipant qualifies as an eligible person under the provisions of subsection (c) of section 10-183j, General Statutes. A birth certificate or notarized statement supported by other evidence satisfactory to the Board must be filed for both the member and coparticipant.

(3) Benefit to Coparticipant. A member may elect to provide a monthly life income to be paid upon his/her death to the coparticipant so designated equal to the full amount of the actuarially reduced monthly retirement benefit payable to such member, or one-third, one-half, two-thirds, or three-fourths of such retirement benefit.

(4) Effective Date of Coparticipant Option. The election of a coparticipant option will become effective

(A) one year from the date the election form, including any required coparticipant identification as set out in subdivision (2) of this subsection, is filed with the Board, or

(B) on the date of the filing of the election form, required coparticipant identification, and medical evidence found by the Board to be sufficient to establish that the member is in good health; provided that no coparticipant election shall become effective earlier than the date the member first becomes eligible to retire and begin receiving a retirement allowance under the normal, early, deferred-vested, or proratable retirement forms.

(b) Effect of the death of the member prior to the death of the designated coparticipant.

(1) If a member who has filed a Corparticipant Option election form predeceases the person named on the election form as coparticipant and the option is not in effect either because the member is not yet eligible to retire and receive a retirement allowance, or has not filed with the Board satisfactory evidence of good health, or because the election has not been on file with the Board for one year, the option is void.

(2) If a member who had filed a Coparticipant Option election form predeceases the person named on the election form as coparticipant on or after the date the option becomes effective, such coparticipant shall be eligible to receive a monthly benefit effective on the first day of the month following the month in which the member died and continuing for the lifetime of the coparticipant. Such monthly benefit shall be computed according to the formula set forth in subsection (d) of Section 10-183j, General Statutes. Upon the subsequent death of the coparticipant, no further benefit would be payable.

(c) Effect of the divorce from the member or the death of the designated coparticipant prior to the Death of the member.

(1) If the person designated by a member as his/her coparticipant on a Coparticipant Option election form is divorced from the member or predeceases the member and the option is not in effect either because the member is not yet eligible to retire and receive a retirement allowance, or has not filed with the Board satisfactory evidence of good health, or because the election has not been on file with the Board for one year, the option is voidable, and if the member takes no action prior to the date it would have become effective it will on that date become void. If prior to such date the member executes and files with the Board a new election form naming another person as coparticipant, such new election will become effective on the same date as the original would have.

(2) If the person designated by a member as his/her coparticipant on a Coparticipant Option election form is divorced from the member or predeceases the member after such Option has become effective but before the effective date of the member's retirement, the option is void.

(3) If the person designated by a member as his/her coparticipant on a Coparticipant Option election form is divorced from the member or predeceases the member after the effective date of the member's retirement, monthly benefits to the member will be increased by the amount of the original reduction beginning on the first day of the month following the month in which the coparticipant became divorced from the member or died, and the member's retirement payment plan shall be deemed from that date to be the Normal payment plan.

(d) Amending or revoking a coparticipant option.

(1) Prior to the date of a member's retirement, the member may amend or revoke his/her election.

(A) A member may amend his/her election to substitute a new coparticipant for the one originally designated, or to increase or reduce the fraction payable to the coparticipant, by completing a new Coparticipant Option election form and stating thereon that it is intended to amend the election form previously filed. The option, if not already effective, will become effective, as amended, on the same date the original option would have become effective.

(B) A member may revoke his/her election by any writing, signed and notarized, filed with the Board.

(2) A coparticipant option may neither be amended nor revoked once the member has retired.

(e) Computing benefits payable under the coparticipant option.

(1) The monthly benefit payable to the member who at retirement has in effect a coparticipant option shall be the normal, early, or proratable retirement benefit computed on the basis of his/her age, length of service, and average final salary actuarially reduced according to tables adopted by the Board. Such tables shall provide for an actuarial reduction based on the fraction of the member's retirement benefit that will be continued to the coparticipant after the death of the member, and the age of the member and of the coparticipant on the date of the member's retirement. Such tables shall be revised periodically to reflect current mortality and other economic experience in order that benefits payable under the coparticipant option be the actuarial equivalent of the basic benefit payable to the member.

(2) The monthly benefit payable to the surviving coparticipant of a deceased retired member shall be that fraction of the monthly benefit payable to the member as calculated in subpart (1) above as had been selected by the member on the election form filed with the Board and in effect at the time of his/her retirement.

(3) The monthly benefit payable to the surviving coparticipant of a deceased member who was not retired and who had in effect at the time of his death a coparticipant option shall be that fraction of the benefit that would have been payable to the member had he/she retired on the date of his/her death selected by the member on the election form filed with the Board and in effect at the time of his/her death.

(Effective November 25, 1992)