County employees' retirement: optional settlements.

The County Employees' Retirement Law of 1937 permits a member or retired member of a retirement system established pursuant to its provisions, prior to the time that the first payment of any retirement allowance is made, to elect certain optional settlements, which operate to reduce the allowance payable to the member through his or her life and provide for a subsequent payment to another party or parties, including his or her spouse. This bill would, upon adoption by a county, permit a retired member to revoke certain optional settlements if, at retirement, the retired member was unmarried or had been married less than one year, the retired member had retired before the county adopted other specified optional retirement settlements, and the application to revoke includes the signature of the designated beneficiary of the optional settlement or a written declaration, as specified. The bill would provide a civil penalty for a person who knowingly provides false information in the declaration, to be brought at the option of a public prosecutor. The bill would also require, if the designated beneficiary of the optional settlement is a spouse or domestic partner of the member, that the application for revocation evidence that person's agreement to the revocation. The bill would provide, pursuant to this revocation, that the retired member's allowance be adjusted prospectively and the spouse would be entitled to any provisions for which he or she may qualify as if an optional settlement had not been elected. The bill would prohibit the retired member, after revocation, from electing other optional settlements. The bill would provide that the retirement system has no obligation to locate or otherwise contact retired members who may qualify for a revocation. The bill would provide that any actions taken, as described above, do not excuse the obligation of a member to provide a continuing benefit to a former spouse pursuant to court order.