Special death benefits: additional percentages: children of members.

Existing law, the Public Employees' Retirement Law, requires the payment of death benefits to beneficiaries of members and, under certain conditions, the payment of special death benefits. These special death benefits are payable to the surviving spouse and children of certain member categories, among them peace officer and safety member categories, whose deaths are determined to be industrial. Existing law requires an additional percentage of the special death benefit to be paid to the spouses of members who are killed in the performance of their duties, or who die as a result of an accident or an injury caused by external violence or physical force during the performance of their duties, for each of the members' children, as specified, for the lifetime of the surviving spouse. This bill, for the purpose of the additional percentage of the special death benefit described above, would require that payment be made to the person having custody of the member's child or children, if the member does not have a surviving spouse but otherwise meets the specified requirements, or if the surviving spouse dies before each child of the member has died, married, or reached 22 years of age. The bill would eliminate the use of the lifetime of the surviving spouse for purposes of determining the term during which this benefit is paid. The bill would make these provisions operative retroactively to on or after January 1, 2013, and would make various nonsubstantive style changes.