Sec. 804.005.  PAYMENT IN CERTAIN CIRCUMSTANCES IN LIEU OF BENEFITS AWARDED BY QUALIFIED DOMESTIC RELATIONS ORDER.  (a)  This section applies only to the Employees Retirement System of Texas and the Teacher Retirement System of Texas.
(b)  A public retirement system to which this section applies shall pay an alternate payee of a member of the retirement system who is described by Subsection (c), if the alternate payee so elects and in lieu of the interest awarded by a qualified domestic relations order on or after January 1, 1985, an amount that is the alternate payee's portion of the actuarial equivalent of the accrued retirement benefit of the member of the retirement system, determined as if the member retired on the date of the alternate payee's election.  The amount becomes payable at the time the actuarial equivalent is determined, and the amount is payable in the form of an annuity payable in equal monthly installments for the life of the alternate payee.
(c)  A member whose benefits are subject to partial payment under this section is one who has not retired from the retirement system, has attained the greater of the age of 62 or normal retirement age and the service requirements for service retirement, and retains credit and contributions in the retirement system attributable to that service.
(d)  If an alternate payee elects to be paid under this section, the retirement system shall reduce the benefit payable by the system to the member or the member's beneficiary by the alternate payee's portion of the actuarial equivalent determined under Subsection (b).
(e)  In determining under Subsection (b) the actuarial equivalent of an accrued retirement benefit, the system shall consider the member's benefit as a normal age standard service retirement annuity, without regard to any optional annuity chosen or beneficiary designated by the member.
(f)  The beginning of monthly payments under this section terminates any interest that the alternate payee who receives the payment might otherwise have in benefits that accrue to the account of the member after the date the initial payment to the alternate payee is made.
(g)  A public retirement system may adopt rules for administration of this section.
Added by Acts 1993, 73rd Leg., ch. 867, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1993.