West Virginia Code 16-5V-6b – Transfer of county firefighter member assets from Public Employees Retirement System
(a) The Consolidated Public Retirement Board shall, within one hundred eighty days of January 1, 2023, transfer assets from the Public Employees Retirement System Trust Fund into the West Virginia Emergency Medical Services Trust Fund.
Terms Used In West Virginia Code 16-5V-6b
- Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
- Board: means the Consolidated Public Retirement Board. See West Virginia Code 16-5V-2
- County firefighter: means an individual employed in full-time employment as a firefighter with a county commission. See West Virginia Code 16-5V-2
- Emergency medical services officer: means an individual employed by the state, county or other political subdivision as a medical professional who is qualified to respond to medical emergencies, aids the sick and injured and arranges or transports to medical facilities, as defined by the West Virginia Office of Emergency Medical Services. See West Virginia Code 16-5V-2
- Fund: means the West Virginia Emergency Medical Services Retirement Fund created by this article. See West Virginia Code 16-5V-2
- Liabilities: The aggregate of all debts and other legal obligations of a particular person or legal entity.
- Member: means either: (1) A person first hired as an emergency medical services officer by an employer which is a participating public employer of the Emergency Medical Services Retirement System after the effective date of this article, as defined in subsection (r) of this section. See West Virginia Code 16-5V-2
- Public Employees Retirement System: means the West Virginia Public Employee's Retirement System created by West Virginia Code. See West Virginia Code 16-5V-2
- retirement: means the first day of the month following or coincident with the latter of the last day the member worked in covered employment or the member's normal retirement age and after completing proper written application for retirement on an application supplied by the board. See West Virginia Code 16-5V-2
(b) The amount of assets to be transferred for each transferring county firefighter shall be computed as of January 1, 2023, using July 1, 2022, actuarial valuation of the Public Employees Retirement System, and updated with 7.25 percent annual interest to the date of the actual asset transfer. The market value of the assets of the transferring county firefighter in the Public Employees Retirement System shall be determined as of the end of the month preceding the actual transfer. To determine the computation of the asset share to be transferred the board shall:
(1) Compute the market value of the Public Employees Retirement System assets as of July 1, 2022, actuarial valuation date under the actuarial valuation approved by the board;
(2) Compute the actuarial accrued liabilities for all Public Employees Retirement System retirees, beneficiaries, disabled retirees and terminated inactive members as of July 1, 2022, actuarial valuation date;
(3) Compute the market value of active member assets in the Public Employees Retirement System as of July 1, 2022, by reducing the assets value under subdivision (1) of this subsection by the inactive liabilities under subdivision (2) of this subsection;
(4) Compute the actuarial accrued liability for all active Public Employees Retirement System members as of July 1, 2022, actuarial valuation date approved by the board;
(5) Compute the funded percentage of the active members’ actuarial accrued liabilities under the Public Employees Retirement System as of July 1, 2022, by dividing the active members’ market value of assets under subdivision (3) of this subsection by the active members’ actuarial accrued liabilities under subdivision (4) of this subsection;
(6) Compute the actuarial accrued liabilities under the Public Employees Retirement System as of July 1, 2022, for active emergency medical services officers transferring to the Emergency Medical Services Retirement System;
(7) Determine the assets to be transferred from the Public Employees Retirement System to the Emergency Medical Services Retirement System by multiplying the active members’ funded percentage determined under subdivision (5) of this subsection by the transferring active members’ actuarial accrued liabilities under the Public Employees Retirement System under subdivision (6) of this subsection and adjusting the asset transfer amount by interest at 7.25 percent for the period from the calculation date of July 1, 2022, through the first day of the month in which the asset transfer is to be completed.
(c) Once a county firefighter has elected to transfer from the Public Employees Retirement System, transfer of that amount as calculated in accordance with the provisions of subsection (b) of this section by the Public Employees Retirement System shall operate as a complete bar to any further liability to the Public Employees Retirement System and constitutes an agreement whereby the transferring county firefighter forever indemnifies and holds harmless the Public Employees Retirement System from providing him or her any form of retirement benefit whatsoever until that emergency medical services officer obtains other employment which would make him or her eligible to reenter the Public Employees Retirement System with no credit whatsoever for the amounts transferred to the Emergency Medical Services Retirement System.