Chapter 32

Section 1. The following words and phrases as used in sections one to twenty-eight inclusive, unless a different meaning is plainly required by the context, shall have the following meanings:-- "Accumulated additional deductions'', the sum of the amount of the additional deductio…

Section 10. (1) Right to a Superannuation Retirement Allowance. — Any member classified in Group 1, Group 2 or Group 4 who after completing twenty or more years of creditable service, resigns or voluntarily terminates his service, or fails of reappointment, or whose office or pos…

Section 100. Notwithstanding any provision of this chapter or any other general or special law to the contrary, if a firefighter while in the performance of his duties and as the result of an accident while responding to or returning from an alarm of fire or any emergency, or as …

Section 100A. (a) Notwithstanding any other provision of this chapter or any other general or special law to the contrary, there shall be paid a killed in the line of duty benefit, to be administered and paid for, subject to appropriation, by the state board of retirement. (b) Th…

Section 101. In the event of the death of any former employee who had been retired under the provisions of this chapter after having been found to be incapacitated for further duty by reason of injuries sustained while in the performance of his duties, or who had been retired for…

Section 102. (a) The actuary in the commission shall annually in the month of January file with the clerk of the house of representatives the report prepared in accordance with paragraph (f) of subdivision (3) of section 21. If the general court thereafter determines by law that …

Section 103. (a) Any system other than the state employees' retirement system and the teachers' retirement system may, by accepting the provisions of this section as hereinafter provided, elect to establish a cost of living adjustment calculation pursuant to this section; provide…

Section 104. (a) Notwithstanding any other provision of this chapter to the contrary, there shall be established with respect to the state employees' retirement system and the teachers' retirement system, and with respect to any other system that has established a funding schedul…

Section 105. (a) Any member retired under section 5 or section 10 shall be eligible to be reinstated in a retirement system established under this chapter, if the retired member repays to the system from which he retired an amount equal to the total amount of any retirement allow…

Section 106. (a) Notwithstanding any general or special law to the contrary, a retirement allowance, as defined in section 1, to a member inactive, as defined in section 3, that included in its calculation the annual amounts paid in lieu of vacation leave upon which contributions…

Section 11. (1) Return of Accumulated Total Deductions to Members. — (a) A member entitled to a return of the member's accumulated total deductions as provided for in paragraph (c) or (d) of subdivision (1) of section 4, in subdivision (4) of section 10, in paragraph (b) of subdi…

Section 12. (1) Election of Option. — Any member who is retired for superannuation under the provisions of section five or who applies for a retirement allowance under the provisions of section ten or subdivision (3) of section twenty-six, may elect to have his allowance paid in …

Section 12A. Any person, or the legal guardian of any person, who may be entitled to accidental death benefits under the provisions of section nine may, during and within the period of one year next succeeding the death of the member in service, avail himself of the allowance pro…

Section 12B. If a member in service, as described in subparagraph (i) of paragraph (a) of subdivision (1) of section three, including such a member in the uniformed division of the state police, who has not nominated a beneficiary under Option (d) of subdivision (2) of section tw…

Section 12C. The benefits provided for a widow and children under section twelve B shall be paid in like manner to the widow and children of a deceased employee who had completed two years of creditable service and had been married to such widow for one year at the time of his de…

Section 12D. A retirement system subject to this chapter shall pay all benefits in accordance with the requirements of section 401(a)(9) of the Internal Revenue Code and the regulations in effect under that section, as applicable to a governmental plan as defined in section 414(d…

Section 13. (1) Amounts, Conditions and Intervals of Payments. — (a) Payments under any annuity, pension or retirement allowance provided for under this chapter and in effect on December thirty-first, nineteen hundred and forty-five, shall continue to be due and payable in the sa…

Section 14. (1) Retention of Rights of a Member in Service. — (a) Any employee who was a member in service at the time of sustaining an injury or undergoing a hazard on account of which he becomes entitled to payments under the provisions of chapter one hundred and fifty-two shal…

Section 14A. Third Party Recovery. If a member or beneficiary entitled to a pension under the provisions of section six, seven or nine, also has a right to recover lost wages from any party other than his employer by reason of the same injury or death of such member, the amount o…

Section 15. (1) Misappropriation of Funds. — Any member who has been charged with the misappropriation of funds or property of any governmental unit in which or by which he is employed or was employed at the time of his retirement or termination of service, as the case may be, or…

Section 16. (1) Involuntary Retirement and Right to a Hearing. — (a) Any head of a department who is of the opinion that any member employed therein should be retired for superannuation, ordinary disability or accidental disability, in accordance with the provisions of section fi…

Section 17. Any option, election or right existing in any member may be exercised or enforced, if such member is incompetent or for any other reason is unable to exercise or enforce the same himself, by the spouse of such member if they are living together at the time any such ac…

Section 18. (1) Filing of Statements and Penalties for Failure to File. — Any employee or member upon request from the board shall file with it such written statement or certified record or copy thereof as shall be required by the provisions of sections one to twenty-eight, inclu…

Section 19. The funds of each system established under the provisions of sections one to twenty-eight, inclusive, so far as they are invested in personal property, shall be exempt from taxation. The rights of a member to an annuity, pension or retirement allowance, such annuity, …

Section 19A. Any employee of the commonwealth, a city, town, district or other member unit of a retirement system who is retired under this chapter shall, upon the request of the retiring authority paying such pension or retirement allowance, or otherwise may, by assignment made …

Section 19B. (1) The state treasurer shall withhold from the monthly pension, annuity, or retirement allowance of every member of the teachers' retirement system or surviving spouse, unless such member or surviving spouse specifically elects to prohibit such withholding, an amoun…

Section 19C. The annuity, retirement allowance, pension, return of accumulated total deductions or payment to any person pursuant to the provisions of this chapter or similar annuity, retirement allowance, pension, return of accumulated total deductions or payment to any person p…

Section 2. The state employees' retirement system, the teachers' retirement system and all county, city and town contributory retirement systems, established under the provisions of this chapter, as existing on December thirty-first, nineteen hundred and forty-five, shall, subjec…

Section 20. (1) State Employees' Retirement System. — (a) The contributory retirement system for state employees shall be known as the ''state employees' retirement system'' and all of its business shall be transacted under such name. (b) The state employees' retirement system sh…

Section 20A. In any city, town or other entity which accepts the provisions of this section, in a city, by a vote of the city council with the approval of the mayor; in a town, by a vote of the town meeting; in a municipality having a town council form of government, by a vote of…

Section 20B. Indemnification.—In any civil action brought against a member, employee or the investment committee of the state retirement board, the teachers' retirement board, or any member or employee of the pension reserves investment management board the defense or settlement …

Section 20C. Retirement Board Member Statement of Financial Interest. — (a) Every member of a retirement board shall file a statement of financial interests for the preceding calendar year with the commission: (i) within 30 days of becoming a member of a retirement board; (ii) by…

Section 21. (1) Duties of public employee retirement administration commission. — (a) The public employee retirement administration commission shall prescribe and supervise methods of accounting and recordkeeping for each system maintained under the provisions of this chapter. To…

Section 21A. Debarment or Suspension of Contractors or Vendors. — (a) As used in this section the following words shall, unless the context requires otherwise, have the following meanings:— ''Affiliates'', entities which are affiliates of each other when either directly or indire…

Section 22. All the assets of each system as they exist at the commencement of business on January first, nineteen hundred and forty-six, and all the assets of each system received, acquired or held on or after such date shall, subject to the provisions of sections one to twenty-…

Section 22B. In each fiscal year, the governor shall recommend to the general court an appropriation to be set aside in the PRIT Fund to reduce the unfunded pension liability of retirement systems participating in said fund pursuant to section twenty-two. Such recommendation shal…

Section 22C. (1) In each fiscal year, there shall be transferred from the General Fund by the comptroller, without further appropriation, to the Commonwealth's Pension Liability Fund the amount necessary to fully fund the system as determined by the schedule set forth in this sec…

Section 22D. (1) Systems other than the state employees' retirement system and the teachers' retirement system, upon notification by the legislative body of a governmental unit of a decision to accept the provisions of this section, shall establish a retirement system funding sch…

Section 22E. (a) For the purposes of this section, ''statutory adjustment to the commonwealth pension liability'' shall mean an adjustment that changes the benefits or contributions of classes of members including, but not limited to, early retirement incentive programs, cost-of-…

Section 22F. (a) A system, other than the state employees' retirement system and the teachers' retirement system, which conducts an actuarial valuation of the retirement system as of January 1, 2009, or later, may establish a revised retirement system funding schedule, subject to…

Section 23. (1)(a) The funds of the state employees' retirement system and the teachers' retirement system and the assets of the Boston retirement system attributable to teachers who are members of that system shall be held in the PRIT Fund. The board of each such system shall an…

Section 23B. (a) This section shall apply to every retirement board contract for the procurement of investment, actuarial, legal and accounting services. (b) As used in this section the following words shall, unless the context requires otherwise, have the following meanings:— ''…

Section 24. (1) Enforcement of Provisions. — If the public employee retirement administration commission determines that any governmental unit, any officer or employee thereof, or the state board of retirement, the teachers' retirement board, or any other board subject to the pro…

Section 25. (1) Guarantee of Minimum Allowances. — (a) Any member in service who was a member on December thirty-first, nineteen hundred and forty-five, and who, having creditable service for a period prior thereto, is subsequently retired after the attainment of an age and the c…

Section 26. (1) As used in this section, the following words shall, unless the context otherwise requires, have the following meanings:-- "Department'', the department of state police. "Officer'', an officer of the department of state police appointed thereto under section ten of…

Section 27. All the assets of each system as they exist at the commencement of business on January first, nineteen hundred and forty-six, shall, as of such date and as soon thereafter as is practicable, be credited by the board to one of the five funds of the system enumerated in…

Section 28. (1) Acceptance by Towns. — At the state election in nineteen hundred and forty-six and at each state election thereafter, sections one to twenty-eight inclusive shall be submitted for acceptance to the registered voters of each town which has not accepted for all of i…

Section 28A. Any provision in sections one to twenty-eight, inclusive, to the contrary, notwithstanding, any officer of the department of state police appointed under section ten of chapter twenty-two C who has performed service in said department for not less than twenty years s…

Section 28I. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, an employee of the commonwealth and a member of its retirement system selected to serve with an interstate commission on which the commonwealth is represented and to which the commonwealth contributes, shall, while serving …

Section 28K. Any employee of the commonwealth or its political subdivisions who is a representative of an employee organization, which has included in its membership employees of the commonwealth or its political subdivisions shall, while on a full-time or part-time leave of abse…