The optional forms of retirement benefits are the following:

(1) A straight life annuity;

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Terms Used In South Dakota Codified Laws 3-13C-21

  • Annuity: A periodic (usually annual) payment of a fixed sum of money for either the life of the recipient or for a fixed number of years. A series of payments under a contract from an insurance company, a trust company, or an individual. Annuity payments are made at regular intervals over a period of more than one full year.

(2) A single life annuity with a certain period of ten, fifteen, or twenty years;

(3) A single life annuity with modified cash refund of the participant’s required contribution account;

(4) A survivorship life annuity equal to the participant’s monthly retirement benefit, reduced by two and one-half percent of the amount of the benefit not exceeding three hundred dollars plus ten percent of the amount by which the benefit exceeds three hundred dollars, with survivorship percentages of fifty or seventy-five percent; and

(5) A Social Security adjustment option based on the normal form and adjusted in a manner so when added to the primary insurance benefits under Title II of the Federal Social Security Act in effect on the participant’s retirement date will provide, as nearly as practicable, a uniform series of payments before and after attaining Social Security retirement age. This option is effective only for a participant whose retirement date occurs before the participant attains Social Security retirement age.

Social Security retirement age means, on any date, the age at which full Social Security benefits become payable as determined by the Social Security table in effect on that date.

The benefit payable under any optional form available under this section, other than the normal form, shall be the actuarial equivalent of the benefit otherwise payable to the participant under the normal form on the participant’s retirement date. If the participant’s retirement date is before the participant’s normal retirement date, the benefit payable under any optional form other than a nondecreasing annuity payable for a period of not less than the life of the participant or an annuity decreasing during the life of the participant because of either the death of the survivor contingent participant but only if the reduction is not below fifty percent of the benefit payable before the death of the survivor contingent participant or the cessation or reduction of Social Security supplements or qualified disability payments as defined in 26 U.S.C. § 401(a)(11), may not be less than the actuarial equivalent of the benefit otherwise payable to the participant under the normal form on the participant’s normal retirement date.

The election of an optional form is subject to the provisions of §§ 3-13C-13 and 3-13C-23.

Retirement benefits are nontransferable.

Source: SL 2020, ch 13, § 28.