(1) Eligibility to participate in the optional retirement plan shall be determined by the board of regents of each of the state public postsecondary education institutions identified in KRS § 161.220(4)(b). The employees of these institutions of higher education who are initially employed on or after the implementation date of the optional retirement plan may make an election to participate in the optional retirement plan within thirty (30) days after their employment date. This election shall be irrevocable except as otherwise provided in this subsection. No member of the Kentucky Teachers’ Retirement System who terminates employment and is subsequently reemployed by the same or another public postsecondary education institution which participates in the Kentucky Teachers’ Retirement System may be eligible to elect to participate in the optional retirement plan unless the date of reemployment is at least six (6) months after the date of termination. All elections made under this subsection shall be in writing and shall be filed with the appropriate officer of the employer institution. Persons who originally elected to participate in the optional retirement plan may later change their elections only as follows:
(a) Any person otherwise eligible for membership in the Kentucky Teachers’ Retirement System may irrevocably elect one (1) time during his or her lifetime to change his or her election and to prospectively participate in the Kentucky Teachers’ Retirement System. This election to change from the optional retirement plan to Kentucky Teachers’ Retirement System shall be effective beginning on the first day of the first month immediately following the date that written application for the election is received in the retirement system’s office on forms prescribed by the system. Any person exercising this election shall not be entitled to purchase as service credit in the Kentucky Teachers’ Retirement System any prior service with his or her postsecondary education institution employer;
(b) Any person otherwise eligible for membership in the Kentucky Teachers’ Retirement System who previously elected to participate in the optional retirement plan may irrevocably elect one (1) time within his or her first six (6) years and six (6) months of continuous service in any one (1) or more of the institutions identified in KRS § 161.220(4)(b), to change his or her election and to prospectively participate in the Kentucky Teachers’ Retirement System and also become eligible to purchase as service credit his or her prior service with his or her postsecondary education employer. This election to change from the optional retirement plan to the Kentucky Teachers’ Retirement System shall be effective beginning on the first day of the first month immediately following the date that written application for the election is received in the retirement system’s office on forms prescribed by the retirement system. Persons electing to change from the optional retirement plan to the Kentucky Teachers’ Retirement System may purchase service credit only for their prior years of service for a postsecondary education
institution identified in KRS § 161.220(4)(b) during which they participated in the optional retirement plan. The election to purchase prior service as service credit shall be received in the retirement system’s office on forms prescribed by the retirement system within the six (6) year and six (6) month period provided to make the election to begin participation in the Kentucky Teachers’ Retirement System. The cost of purchasing this service shall be calculated by adding both the employer and member contributions that would have been paid to the Kentucky Teachers’ Retirement System had the individual purchasing this service participated in the Kentucky Teachers’ Retirement System instead of the optional retirement plan, less the amount contributed to the Kentucky Teachers’ Retirement System by the postsecondary education institution as provided by KRS § 161.569(5), or KRS § 161.569(5)(a)2. as it existed on June 30, 2007. Interest at Kentucky Teachers’ Retirement System’s actuarially assumed rate shall be paid on these net contributions by the person electing to change to the Kentucky Teachers’ Retirement System from the optional retirement plan. These payments shall not be picked up as described in KRS § 161.540(2). Persons who elect to change from the optional retirement plan to the Kentucky Teachers’ Retirement System may elect to purchase as service credit, beginning with the most recent years, any portion of their prior years of service during which time they participated in the optional retirement plan, or none of those years. Members may purchase service credit for prior years of service by rolling over funds from their optional retirement plan account as provided under KRS § 161.5461, or by rolling over or transferring other plan funds as permitted by the rules set forth in the Internal Revenue Code, or by making an after-tax lump-sum cash payment;
(c) Effective July 1, 2008, persons otherwise eligible for membership in the Kentucky Teachers’ Retirement System may irrevocably elect one (1) time to change their election and to prospectively participate in the Kentucky Teachers’ Retirement System and purchase service credit for their prior years of service during which they participated in the optional retirement plan. This election shall be filed in writing with the Kentucky Teachers’ Retirement System no later than December 31, 2008. Persons who change their election prior to July 1, 2008, to prospectively participate in the Kentucky Teachers’ Retirement System may purchase service credit for their prior years of service during which they participated in the optional retirement plan. The purchase of prior years of service under this paragraph shall be subject to the same conditions and purchase costs as described in paragraph (b) of this subsection, except that the election to purchase service credit shall be on file with the Kentucky Teachers’ Retirement System no later than December 31, 2008; and
(d) Persons electing to change to the Kentucky Teachers’ Retirement System under paragraphs (a), (b), and (c) of this subsection shall be eligible to participate, based upon their age and allowable service credit, in the disability, survivorship, and medical insurance programs under the conditions and in the degree as they exist on the date that they file their election with the retirement system, but shall be subject to any changes to those programs from that date
forward, including any changes that may affect their eligibility for or degree of participation in those programs. Prior service purchased as service credit as permitted under paragraphs (b) and (c) of this subsection shall not be considered for meeting eligibility requirements or determining the extent of participation in these programs. Persons electing to change to the Kentucky Teachers’ Retirement System shall not be eligible for the survivorship or disability programs based upon medical conditions that existed prior to the filing of their elections.
(2) Elections of eligible employees hired on or after the implementation date of the optional retirement plan at their employer institution shall be effective on the date of their employment. If an eligible employee hired subsequent to the implementation date at the employer institution fails to make the election provided for in this section, the employee shall become a member of the regular retirement plan of the Kentucky Teachers’ Retirement System.
Effective: January 1, 2022
History: Amended 2021 Ky. Acts ch. 157, sec. 27, effective January 1, 2022. — Amended 2018 Ky. Acts ch. 107, sec. 64, effective July 14, 2018. — Amended 2008
Ky. Acts ch. 11, sec. 2, effective April 7, 2008. — Amended 2004 Ky. Acts ch. 121, sec. 25, effective July 1, 2004. — Amended 1997 (1st Extra. Sess.) Ky. Acts ch. 1, sec. 70, effective May 30, 1997. — Amended 1996 Ky. Acts ch. 253, sec. 2, effective July 15, 1996. — Created 1994 Ky. Acts ch. 290, sec. 2, effective July 15, 1994.
Legislative Research Commission Note (12/13/2018). On December 13, 2018, the
Kentucky Supreme Court ruled that the passage of 2018 SB 151 (2018 Ky. Acts ch.
107), did not comply with the three-readings rule of Kentucky Constitution Section
46 and that the legislation is, therefore, constitutionally invalid and declared void. That ruling applies to changes made to this statute in that Act.