ยง 343. Transfer of members between systems. a. Notwithstanding any
other provision of law providing for transfers, any member of any
retirement system maintained by the state or a municipality thereof,
operating on a sound financial basis and subject to the supervision of
the department of financial services of this state may transfer his or
her membership pursuant to this section to the New York state and local
employees' retirement system, the New York city board of education
employees' retirement system, the New York state teachers' retirement
system, the New York state and local police and fire retirement system
or to the New York city employees' retirement system. Any member of the
New York state and local police and fire retirement system may transfer
his or her membership to any retirement system, other than the hospital
retirement system, which is operating on a sound basis and is subject to
the supervision of the department of financial services of this state.
Any police officer employed by the metropolitan transportation authority
who is a member of the MTA police twenty year retirement program of the
metropolitan transportation authority defined benefit pension plan
(hereinafter referred to in this section as the "MTA police retirement
program") may transfer his or her membership in the New York state and
local police and fire retirement system and/or the New York city police
pension fund to the MTA police retirement program. Any police officer
who was employed by the metropolitan transportation authority, the Long
Island Railroad Company or the Metro-North Commuter Railroad Company and
who is a member of the MTA police retirement program may transfer his or
her membership in the MTA police retirement program to the New York
state and local police and fire retirement system. Any transfer pursuant
to this section may be effectuated only if the member has accepted a
position in another branch of the state or municipal service which would
make it:
1. Impossible for him or her to continue in the retirement system of
which he or she has been a member, and
2. Possible for him or her to participate in another such system.
Notwithstanding the foregoing provisions of this subdivision, any
employee who would be eligible to avail himself or herself of the
provisions of this section but for being on leave of absence status from
a prior employment while in his or her present employment, shall be
permitted to transfer his or her retirement system membership pursuant
to the provisions of this section.
b. 1. In order to effect such a transfer, a member must give notice to
the administrative head of the retirement system of which he or she is a
member, prior to his or her withdrawal therefrom, of his or her
intention to enter such other retirement system within one year.
2. If a member of the New York city police pension fund is trying to
effect a transfer from such pension fund to the MTA police retirement
program, the member must give notice to the administrative head of the
New York city police pension fund, prior to his or her withdrawal
therefrom, of his or her intention to enter such other retirement system
within one year or within one year of the effective date of this
paragraph.
3. In the case of a person who has withdrawn from a retirement system
and has been entitled to at least thirty years of total service credit
in such system, however, such notice may be given within three years
from the time of such withdrawal. In the case of a person who was a
member of a retirement system, and who while under such status becomes a
member of such second retirement system, and who has not withdrawn his
or her contributions to the first such retirement system, any provisions
of law notwithstanding, such notice may be given on or before June
thirtieth, nineteen hundred sixty-seven. A person so transferring from
one retirement system to another shall be deemed to have been a member
of the system to which he or she has transferred during the entire
period of membership service credited to him or her in the system from
which he or she has transferred. Such transferee, however, shall not
receive more than three percent interest on his or her contributions and
accumulated contributions unless he or she has continuously been a
member in either the system from which or to which he or she is
transferring since a date prior to July first, nineteen hundred
forty-three. This shall not be construed to prevent a change in the
interest rate to such member if the interest rate payable to other
members of the system to which he or she has transferred is changed. Any
member who heretofore transferred from one retirement system to another
shall, commencing with the effective date of this subdivision, be
entitled to the same rights, privileges and benefits, and shall be
subject to the same obligations, as a transferee who hereafter
transfers. He or she shall receive no credit for prior service, except
as hereinafter provided. He or she shall be permitted to deposit in the
second retirement system the total amount of his or her contributions
withdrawn from the first retirement system. Upon such deposit within one
year or within three years, or on or before June thirtieth, nineteen
hundred sixty-seven, as the case may be, he or she or the administrative
head of the system to which he or she desires to transfer, shall request
the administrative head of the first retirement system to transfer to
the second retirement system a credit on account of his or her
membership in such system.
c. Upon the request for a transfer of credit, the reserve on such
member's benefits, computed as though he had not discontinued
membership, shall be determined by the actuary of the first system in
the following manner:
1. The total present value of all benefits allowable under the
retirement system as the result of contributions made or to be made by
his employer shall be computed.
2. From such total present value there shall be deducted the present
value of the future contributions which would be payable by his employer
on such member's account had he become a member of the retirement
system, subsequent to its establishment, at the age at which he
originally entered the service of his employer. The result so obtained
shall be considered as the reserve on his account in the first
retirement system.
d. Such reserve shall be transferred from the appropriate fund or
funds of the first system to the appropriate fund or funds of the second
system within one year from the date of the request for a transfer of
credit. Such member, thereupon, shall be given such status and credited
with such service in the second retirement system as he was allowed in
the first retirement system. Such contributor, notwithstanding any other
provision of law, shall on retirement after three years of member
service in the second retirement system be entitled to a pension based
on salary earned during member service in either retirement system, or
in both retirement systems together, whichever may produce the greater
pension pursuant to the statutory requirements of the second retirement
system. No such contributor, however, shall be entitled, on retirement
within three years of the date of his transfer, to a greater or lesser
pension for such service rendered before his transfer than he would have
received had he remained under the pension provisions of the first
retirement system.
e. 1. A "New York city member," as defined in subdivision twenty of
section two hundred forty-three of the military law, who shall transfer
to another retirement system pursuant to this section shall be given
credit, upon such transfer, for the period of military duty to which
such member would have been entitled pursuant to such subdivision twenty
if he had remained, until the time of death or retirement, in the
retirement system from which he shall so transfer. The amount of
reserves to be transferred under this section for such credit shall be
computed in accordance with this section, shall include pension reserves
for such military duty, and shall be credited by the retirement system
to which the member shall transfer in accordance with the provisions of
such system governing credit for service in world war II, and the city
of New York, or the authority, by which such member is employed
immediately prior to the transfer, shall pay to the retirement system
the amount of the reserve to be transferred on account of such military
service.
2. Any retirement system from which a member shall transfer pursuant
to this subdivision shall have the right to require reasonable proof of
military service, pay status, and any other information relevant to
eligibility for such transfer of credit for military duty.
3. The provisions of this subdivision e shall apply only to a "New
York city member" who has rendered service as an officer or employee of
the city of New York (or any agency thereof) or public corporation, the
officers or employees of which are eligible for membership in a pension
or retirement system maintained by such city, including performance of
such military duty, for at least fifty per centum of the time between
his commencement of such service and the date upon which he has attained
or shall attain age fifty-five.
f. Notwithstanding any other provisions of law, a member of the
retirement system in the employ of the state on March thirty-first,
nineteen hundred seventy, other than a member of the state police in
collective negotiating units established pursuant to article fourteen of
the civil service law, who would have been entitled to transfer service
credit from another retirement system pursuant to this section had he
made a timely election, may obtain such credit by depositing in the
retirement system an amount equal to the contributions withdrawn from
the system of which he had been a member, with regular interest. Such
deposit shall be made on or before March thirty-first, nineteen hundred
seventy-two, provided, however, such member may elect to deposit such
amount over a period of time no greater than the period for which credit
is being claimed. Such payments must commence no later than March
thirty-first, nineteen hundred seventy-two. If the full amount is not
paid to the retirement system, the amount of service credited shall be
proportional to the total amount of the payments made.
g. This subdivision shall apply only to individuals who, subsequent to
vesting in a retirement system, transfer to a second retirement system
whose governing laws require a greater number of years of credit for
vesting than those of the first system, and who, upon such transfer, do
not have the number of years of service credit that is ordinarily
required to vest in such second retirement system.
1. Upon transfer, the number of years of service credit required for
the transferred individual to attain vested rights in the second
retirement system shall be the same as the number of years of service
credit required, under applicable law, for vesting in the first
retirement system.
2. In the event that an individual covered by this subdivision makes
application to retire from such second system prior to attaining the
amount of service credit that would otherwise be necessary to vest in
such second retirement system, and such individual is otherwise eligible
to retire from such second system, the application shall be granted, and
benefits shall be calculated pursuant to the applicable subdivisions of
this section on the basis of the actual amount of service credit the
individual has accrued at the time of retirement. Transferred service
credit shall not be creditable under any plan in the second retirement
system that it would not otherwise be creditable under.
h. Notwithstanding any other provision of law to the contrary, with
respect to transfers pursuant to this section which occur on or after
the effective date of this subdivision, no determination of a reserve
pursuant to subdivision c of this section or transfer thereof pursuant
to the first sentence of subdivision d of this section shall be required
in the case of any transfer pursuant to this section (other than a
transfer from the New York state and local police and fire retirement
system to either (1) the New York city police department subchapter two
pension fund, (2) the New York city fire department subchapter two
pension fund or (3) the MTA police retirement program or a transfer from
either (i) the New York city police department subchapter two pension
fund or (ii) the New York city fire department subchapter two pension
fund to either (A) the New York state and local police and fire
retirement system or (B) the MTA police retirement program or a transfer
from the MTA police retirement program to the New York state and local
police and fire retirement system). For the purpose of giving the
transferring member such status and crediting such service in the second
retirement system as such member was allowed in the first retirement
system in those cases to which this subdivision shall apply, the
transfer shall be deemed complete upon receipt by the second retirement
system of:
1. a statement from the first retirement system of the transferring
member's date of membership in the first retirement system, tier status,
service credited to such membership being transferred, and such other
information as the second retirement system may require to effectuate
the transfer; and
2. such member's accumulated contributions from the first retirement
system, if same had not been previously withdrawn, or notice from the
first retirement system that such member had no accumulated
contributions, or notice from the first retirement system that such
member's accumulated contributions had been withdrawn and the amount
thereof and, as applicable, receipt from such member of such member's
accumulated contributions and interest.