(a) Payments of an annuity that are due a deceased annuitant and have not been made, or have been made but are not negotiable after the annuitant's death are payable to the valid surviving beneficiary of the annuitant on file with the retirement system on the date of the annuitant's death. If there is no surviving beneficiary, the payments are payable to the annuitant's spouse. If there is no surviving spouse, the payments are payable to the executor or administrator of the annuitant's estate.
(b) If the total value of the payments described above is not more than $5,000, and there is no surviving beneficiary or spouse (or diligent efforts by the system to discover, locate and correspond with a surviving beneficiary or spouse have proven fruitless); and no petition for the appointment of an administrator or executor is pending or has been granted; and a small estates affidavit has not been filed with the system; then upon application, the system may, but is not required to, issue payment (including any optional group term life benefit), in trust to a relative of the decedent who would have a right of inheritance assuming the decedent had died intestate without relatives of a closer degree.

Source Note: The provisions of this §107.12 adopted to be effective January 6, 2002, 26 TexReg 11038; amended to be effective January 1, 2006, 30 TexReg 7888; amended to be effective October 18, 2007, 32 TexReg 7266