(a) In this section, normal retirement age is the later of the month a member completes 15 years of credited qualified service or attains the age of 55.     
      (b) A member who has terminated service with all participating departments may apply for a service retirement annuity by filing an application for retirement with the Executive Director. The application may not be filed more than one calendar month before the date the member wishes to retire, which may not precede the date of filing or the date of first eligibility to retire. The effective date of a member's retirement is the first day of the calendar month after the later of the following:      
        (1) the date on which a member turns 55 years of age;       
        (2) the date of termination of service with the participating department; or       
        (3) the date on which the pension system receives an application that meets the requirements of this subsection from a member.       
      (c) A monthly service retirement annuity is payable for the period beginning on the effective date of retirement through the month in which the retiree dies but is not payable for any month for which the retiree was eligible to retire but did not. Amounts payable for periods following the effective date of retirement but prior to the commencement of benefit payments will be paid in a lump sum with the first benefit payment.     
      (d) A service retirement annuity is payable in equal monthly installments.     
      (e) Except as otherwise provided by this section, the full service retirement monthly annuity is equal to six times the average monthly Part One contribution as described in §310.6 during the retiring member's term of qualified service with all participating departments.     
      (f) For credited qualified service in excess of 15 years, a retiring member is entitled to receive an additional 6.2 percent of the full service retirement annuity compounded annually and adjusted for months of credited qualified service that constitute less than a year.     
      (g) Notwithstanding this subsection, a person who had more than 15 years of qualified service as of December 31, 2006, is entitled to a service retirement annuity computed as the greater of the amount that existed on that date or the amount computed under the formula in effect on the date the person terminates service with all participating departments.     
     Source Note:        The provisions of this §308.2 adopted to be effective October 2, 2005, 30 TexReg 6062; amended to be effective July 26, 2006, 31 TexReg 5810; amended to be effective August 31, 2014, 39 TexReg 6869; amended to be effective October 18, 2015, 40 TexReg 7103; amended to be effective December 31, 2017, 42 TexReg 7724; amended to be effective December 31, 2019, 44 TexReg 8333