A. Effective September 1, 2005, each Justice or judge who is a member of The Uniform Retirement System for Justices and Judges shall have eight percent (8%) of his or her current monthly salary withheld by the State of Oklahoma and deposited in a fund in the State Treasury which is hereby created and shall be known as the Oklahoma Judicial Retirement Fund. If a Justice or judge shall cease to be a Justice or judge of the above-mentioned courts, for any reason, before he or she has accumulated eight (8) years of accredited service, or dies after he or she has accumulated eight (8) years’ service and having no survivor benefit, then all the contributions retained from his or her salary shall be paid to him or her or his or her named beneficiary, or his or her estate in case of no named beneficiary, and he or she shall have no further claim against the State of Oklahoma for retirement pay for his or her services to date.
B. Notwithstanding any provision to the contrary, the compensation taken into account for any judge or Justice in determining contributions or benefit accruals for any plan year is limited to the annual compensation limit under Section 401(a)(17) of the federal Internal Revenue Code.
C. Upon death of a retired judge who has no survivor benefits, there shall be paid to his or her named beneficiary, or his or her estate in case of no named beneficiary, an amount equal to the excess, if any, of his or her accumulated contributions over the sum of all retirement benefit payments made.
D. Upon the death of a retired member, the benefit payment for the month in which the retired member died, if not previously paid, shall be made to the estate of the member or to the member’s beneficiary if there is no estate. Such benefit payment shall be made in an amount equal to a full monthly benefit payment regardless of the day of the month in which the retired member died.
Added by Laws 1968, c. 128, § 3, emerg. eff. April 8, 1968. Amended by Laws 1969, c. 328, § 2, emerg. eff. May 7, 1969; Laws 1974, c. 247, § 2, emerg. eff. May 23, 1974; Laws 1976, c. 271, § 13, emerg. eff. June 15, 1976; Laws 1979, c. 255, § 2, eff. July 1, 1979; Laws 1998, c. 419, § 5, eff. July 1, 1998; Laws 1999, c. 257, § 11, eff. July 1, 1999; Laws 2004, c. 539, § 1, eff. July 1, 2004; Laws 2005, c. 464, § 4, eff. Sept. 1, 2005.