Sec. 834.103.  OPTIONAL SERVICE RETIREMENT ANNUITY.  (a)  Instead of a service retirement annuity payable under Section 834.102, a retiring member may elect to receive an optional service retirement annuity, payable throughout the life of the retiree and actuarially reduced, under tables adopted by the board of trustees, from the annuity otherwise payable to its actuarial equivalent.
(b)  Optional service retirement annuities available to a retiring member are those available to retiring members of the Employees Retirement System of Texas under Section 814.108(c).
(c)  A person may apply for an optional service retirement annuity by filing an application for the annuity with the retirement system before the 31st day after the date of the person's retirement.
(d)  If a person who is nominated by a retiree in the written designation under Subsection (b) predeceases the retiree, the reduced annuity of a retiree who has elected an optional lifetime retirement annuity under Section 814.108(c) shall be increased to the standard service retirement annuity that the retiree would otherwise be entitled to receive if the retiree had not selected that annuity option.  The standard service retirement annuity shall be adjusted as appropriate for:
(1)  early retirement as permitted by law;  and
(2)  postretirement increases in retirement benefits authorized by law after the date of retirement.
(e)  The increase in the annuity under Subsection (d) begins with the monthly payment made to the retiree for the month following the month in which the person nominated dies or the September 30, 1991, payment, whichever is later, and is payable to the retiree for the remainder of the retiree's life.
(f)  The computation of an optional service retirement annuity must include the ages of the retiring member and the member's designated beneficiary at the time of the member's retirement.
Acts 1981, 67th Leg., p. 1876, ch. 453, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1981.  Renumbered from Vernon's Ann.Civ.St. Title 110B, Sec. 44.103 and amended by Acts 1989, 71st Leg., ch. 179, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1989.  Amended by Acts 1991, 72nd Leg., ch. 850, Sec. 30, eff. Sept. 1, 1991.