Chapter 135

The following words and phrases as used in this Chapter, unless a different meaning is plainly required by the context, shall have the following meanings: (1) "Accumulated contributions" shall mean the sum of all the amounts deducted from the compensation of a member and accredit…

(a) Any State board or agency charged with the duty of administering any law relating to the examination and licensing of persons to practice a profession, trade or occupation, in its discretion, may elect on or before July 1, 1983, by an appropriate resolution of said board, to …

Any person who shall knowingly make any false statement or shall falsify or permit to be falsified any record or records of this Retirement System in any attempt to defraud such System as a result of such act shall be guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor. Should any change or error in…

(a) If a member fails to respond within 120 days after preliminary option figures and the Form 6-E or Form 7-E are transmitted to the member, or if a member fails to respond within 120 days after the effective date of retirement, whichever is later, then the Form 6 or Form 7 shal…

(a) This Article shall be known and may be cited as the "Disability Income Plan of North Carolina". (b) The purpose of this Article is to provide equitable replacement income for eligible teachers and employees who become temporarily or permanently disabled for the performance of…

The following words and phrases as used in this Article, unless a different meaning is plainly required by the context, shall have the following meanings: (1) "Base rate of compensation" shall mean the regular monthly rate of compensation not including pay for shift premiums, ove…

(a) The provisions of this Article shall be administered by the Department of State Treasurer and the Board of Trustees of the Teachers' and State Employees' Retirement System, except where otherwise provided, and all expenses in connection with the administration of the Plan, ex…

(a) The eligible participants of the Disability Income Plan shall consist of: (1) All teachers and employees in service and members of the Teachers' and State Employees' Retirement System or participants of the Optional Retirement Program on January 1, 1988. (2) All persons who b…

(a) A participant shall receive no benefits from the Plan for a period of 60 continuous calendar days from the onset of disability determined as the last actual day of service, the day of the disabling event if the disabling event occurred on a day other than a normal workday, or…

(a) Any participant who becomes disabled and is no longer able to perform his or her usual occupation may receive a benefit commencing on the first day succeeding the waiting period provided all of the following conditions are met: (1) Application for the benefit occurs at least …

(a) Upon the application of a beneficiary or participant or of his legal representative or any person deemed by the Board of Trustees to represent the participant or beneficiary, any beneficiary or participant who has had five or more years of membership service may receive long-…

(a) Any participant of the Optional Retirement Program who becomes a beneficiary under the Plan shall be eligible to receive long-term disability benefits so long as the beneficiary is disabled and is in receipt of a primary Social Security disability benefit until the time the b…

The compensation upon which the short-term or long-term disability benefit is calculated under the provisions of G.S. 135-105(c) or G.S. 135-106(b) may be increased by any permanent across-the-board salary increase granted to employees of the State by the General Assembly and the…

The Department of State Treasurer and Board of Trustees may require each beneficiary to annually provide a statement of the beneficiary's income received as compensation for services, including fees, commissions, or similar items, income received from business, and benefits recei…

Subject to the provisions of Article 2, Chapter 135 of the General Statutes, Volume 17, as amended, no other provisions of law in any other statute which provides wholly or partly at the expense of the State of North Carolina for pensions or retirement benefits for teachers or St…

(a) It is the intent of the General Assembly that a trust fund be created that provides an irrevocable source of funding to be used, to the extent the fund's assets are sufficient, only for disability benefits to participants and beneficiaries. Accordingly, the following provisio…

Subject to the provisions of this Article, the provisions of G.S. 135-9, entitled "Exemption from taxes, garnishment, attachment, etc."; G.S. 135-10, entitled "Protection against fraud"; G.S. 135-10.1, entitled "Failure to Respond"; and G.S. 135-17, entitled "Facility of payment"…

A person is guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor if the person, with the intent to defraud, receives money as a result of cashing, depositing, or receiving a direct deposit of a decedent's Disability Income Plan allowance and the person (i) knows that he or she is not entitled to the …

(a) Any participant in service as of the date of ratification of this Article and who becomes disabled after one year of membership service will be eligible for all benefits provided under this Article notwithstanding the requirement of five years' membership service to receive t…

The benefits provided in this Article as applicable to a participant who is not a beneficiary under the provisions of this Article shall not be considered as a part of an employment contract, either written or implied, and the General Assembly reserves the right at any time and f…

Only for the purpose of determining eligibility for benefits accruing under this Article, membership service standing to the credit of a member of the Legislative Retirement System or the Consolidated Judicial Retirement System shall be added to the membership service standing to…

The maintenance of annuity reserves and pension reserves as provided for and regular interest creditable to the various funds as provided in G.S. 135-8, and the payment of all pensions, annuities, retirement allowances, refunds and other benefits granted under the provisions of t…

The following words and phrases as used in this Article, unless a different meaning is plainly required by the context, have the following meanings: (1) "Board of Trustees" means the Board of Trustees established by G.S. 135-6. (2) "Internal Revenue Code" means the Internal Reven…

(a) The Qualified Excess Benefit Arrangement (QEBA) is established effective January 1, 2014, and placed under the management of the Board of Trustees. The purpose of the QEBA is solely to provide the part of a retirement allowance or benefit that would otherwise have been payabl…

The following definitions apply in this Article: (1) Benefit Trust. - The North Carolina Teachers' and State Employees' Benefit Trust under G.S. 135-154. (2) Death Benefit Plan. - The Death Benefit Plan for State Employees and Retirees under this Article. (3) Disability Income Pl…

(a) Benefit Trust. - A trust fund, the North Carolina Teachers' and State Employees' Benefit Trust, is created as a master trust to which all receipts, transfers, appropriations, contributions, investment earnings, and other income belonging to participating plans shall be deposi…

(a) Death Benefit Plan for State Employees and Retirees. - There is established the Death Benefit Plan for State Employees and Retirees, a group life insurance plan that is an employee welfare benefit plan that is separate and apart from the Retirement System. (b) Benefit Trust. …

Persons licensed by the State and operating vending facilities under contract with the Department of Health and Human Services, Division of Services for the Blind and its successors, who are licensed on and after October 1, 1983, shall not be members of the Retirement System. (19…

(a) Provisions Applicable. - The Death Benefit Plan is administered by the Board of Trustees. The provisions of G.S. 135-6 and G.S. 135-7 are applicable to the Death Benefit Plan. (b) Effect of Vote Related to Contributory Death Benefit. - No decision of the Board of Trustees rel…

(a) Eligibility. - A member who is not retired and who has completed at least one full year of membership in the Retirement System is a participant in, and eligible for death benefits under, the Death Benefit Plan in accordance with this section. (b) Benefits Upon Death While in …

In the event of the death of a member or beneficiary not survived by a person designated to receive any return of accumulated contributions or balance thereof, or in the event that the Board of Trustees shall find that a beneficiary is unable to care for his affairs because of il…

To determine the last day of actual service for the purposes of the death benefit for in-service members, all of the following apply: (1) Uninterrupted service. - For a member with uninterrupted service, the last day of actual service is the date on which an absent member's sick …

(a) Participation and Premiums. - All retired members may elect to participate in the Death Benefit Plan and therefore become eligible to receive death benefits under the Death Benefit Plan in accordance with this section. Elections shall be made prior to death and no later than …

(a) Prior to retirement, any person who was a member of the North Carolina Governmental Employees' Retirement System and who becomes a member of this Retirement System shall be entitled to transfer to this Retirement System his or her credits for membership and prior service in t…

(a) Except as provided in G.S. 135-4(gg), the Board of Trustees shall not pay any retirement benefits or allowances, except for a return of member contributions plus interest, to any member who is convicted of any felony under the federal laws listed in subsection (b) of this sec…

(a) Except as provided in G.S. 135-4(ii), the Board of Trustees shall not pay any retirement benefits or allowances, except for a return of member contributions plus interest, to any member who is convicted of any felony under federal law or the laws of this State if all of the f…

Any member whose retirement benefits have been forfeited under G.S. 135-18.10 or G.S. 135-18.10A is prohibited from subsequently purchasing or repurchasing either those forfeited benefits or any creditable membership service associated with those forfeited benefits and that servi…

A person is guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor if the person, with the intent to defraud, receives money as a result of cashing, depositing, or receiving a direct deposit of a decedent's retirement allowance and the person (i) knows that he or she is not entitled to the decedent's r…

The General Assembly reserves the right at any time and from time to time, and if deemed necessary or appropriate by said General Assembly in order to coordinate with any changes, in the benefit and other provisions of the Social Security Act made after January 1, 1955, to modify…

In the event of the termination or partial termination of the Retirement System or in the event of complete discontinuance of contributions under the Retirement System, the rights of all affected members to benefits accrued to the date of such termination, partial termination, or…

(a) Notwithstanding any other provisions of law to the contrary, compensation for any calendar year after 1988 in which employee or employer contributions are made and for which annual compensation is used for computing any benefit under this Article shall not exceed the higher o…

(a) Any beneficiary who is a member of a domiciled employees' or retirees' association that has at least 2,000 members, the majority of whom are active or retired employees of the State or public school employees, may authorize, in writing, the periodic deduction from the benefic…

(a) The accumulated contributions, creditable service, and reserves, if any, of a member of the Legislative Retirement System, as provided for in Article 1A of G.S. 120, or the Consolidated Judicial Retirement System, as provided for in Article 4 of G.S. 135, who later becomes a …

(a) Eligibility. - A member who is a beneficiary of the Disability Income Plan or in receipt of workers' compensation benefits during the period for which the member would have otherwise been eligible to receive short-term benefits or extended short-term benefits under G.S. 135-1…

(a) Designation. - A member shall designate a beneficiary or beneficiaries for each applicable benefit payable under this Article by electronic submission in a form approved by the Board of Trustees or by written designation duly acknowledged and filed with the Board of Trustees.…

In order to extend to employees of the State and its political subdivisions and of the instrumentalities of either, and to the dependents and survivors of such employees, the basic protection accorded to others by the Old Age and Survivors Insurance System embodied in the Social …

(a) Reciprocity of Death Benefit Plan. - Only for the purpose of determining eligibility for the death benefits provided for under this Article, membership service standing to the credit of (i) a member of the Legislative Retirement System or the Consolidated Judicial Retirement …

Death benefit amounts payable under this Article shall be payable apart and separate from the payment of the member's accumulated contributions under the Retirement System on the member's death pursuant to the provisions of subsection (f) of G.S. 135-5. (2025-11, ss. 1(a), (z), 3…

A Retirement System is hereby established and placed under the management of the Board of Trustees for the purpose of providing retirement allowances and other benefits under the provisions of this Chapter for teachers and State employees of the State of North Carolina. The Retir…

For the purposes of this Article: (1) The term "employee" includes an officer of the State, or one of its political subdivisions or instrumentalities. (2) The term "employment" means any service performed by an employee in the employ of the State, or any political subdivision the…