(a) Upon receipt by the system of proper proof of a class H member’s death occurring in service or while on authorized leave without pay and if no pension is payable under section 88-339, there shall be paid to the member’s designated beneficiary an ordinary death benefit as follows:

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Terms Used In Hawaii Revised Statutes 88-338

  • Beneficiary: A person who is entitled to receive the benefits or proceeds of a will, trust, insurance policy, retirement plan, annuity, or other contract. Source: OCC
  • Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
  • Hypothetical account balance: means :

    (1) For members who became members before July 1, 2012, the sum of:

    (A) One and one-half times the sum of:

    (i) Employee contributions made, either by the member or on behalf of the member, pursuant to § 88-325;

    (ii) Accumulated interest at the regular interest rate on the employee contributions; and

    (B) Any employee contributions, including rollovers and contributions used to convert credited service to class H credited service, or used to purchase service, and accumulated interest on the employee contributions at the regular interest rate; or

    (2) For members who become members after June 30, 2012, the sum of:

    (A) One and one-fifth times the sum of:

    (i) Employee contributions made, either by the member or on behalf of the member, pursuant to § 88-325; and

    (ii) Accumulated interest at the regular interest rate on the employee contributions; and

    (B) Any employee contributions, including rollovers and contributions used to convert credited service to class H credited service, or used to purchase service, and accumulated interest on the employee contributions at the regular interest rate. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 88-311

  • month: means a calendar month; and the word "year" a calendar year. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 1-20
(1) The member’s accumulated contributions shall be paid to the member’s designated beneficiary if:

(A) The member became a member before July 1, 2012, and had less than five years of credited service at the time of death; or
(B) The member became a member after June 30, 2012, and had less than ten years of credited service at the time of death;
(2) An amount equal to the member’s hypothetical account balance shall be paid to the member’s designated beneficiary if:

(A) The member became a member before July 1, 2012, and had five or more years of credited service at the time of death; or
(B) The member became a member after June 30, 2012, and had ten or more years of credited service at the time of death;
(3) If the member had ten or more years of credited service at the time of death, the member’s designated beneficiary may elect to receive in lieu of any other payment provided in this section, the allowance that would have been payable as if the member had retired on the first day of a month following the member’s death, except for the month of December when retirement on the first or last day of the month shall be allowed. Benefits payable under this paragraph shall be calculated under option 3 of § 88-83 and computed on the basis of § 88-332, unreduced for age; or
(4) If the member was eligible for service retirement at the time of death, the member’s designated beneficiary may elect to receive in lieu of any other payment provided in this section, the allowance that would have been payable as if the member had retired on the first day of a month following the member’s death, except for the month of December when retirement on the first or last day of the month shall be allowed. Benefits payable under this paragraph shall be calculated under option 2 of § 88-83 and computed on the basis of § 88-332.
(b) If the member’s designation of beneficiary is void as specified in section 88-93, or if the member did not designate a beneficiary, the death benefit in the case of ordinary death shall be payable:

(1) To the surviving spouse or reciprocal beneficiary, a benefit as specified under subsection (a);
(2) To the deceased member’s children under age eighteen, if there is no surviving spouse or reciprocal beneficiary, an equally divided benefit as specified under paragraph (1) or (2) of subsection (a); or
(3) To the deceased member’s estate, if there is no surviving spouse or reciprocal beneficiary or children under the age of eighteen, a benefit as specified under paragraph (1) or (2) of subsection (a).
(c) For the purposes of this section, a year round school employee shall be considered in service during the July and August preceding a transfer to a traditional school schedule if the employee was in service for the entire prior school year and has a contract for the upcoming traditional school year.
(d) The application for ordinary death benefits shall be filed no later than three years from the date of the member’s death.

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