Title 41, Title 41 PUBLIC EMPLOYMENT, CIVIL SERVICE, AND PENSIONS

This chapter applies to members of the restated law enforcement officers' and firefighters' retirement system. Membership in the system is limited to those persons who were members of plan 1 of the law enforcement officers' and firefighters' retirement system under chapter 41.26 …

This chapter shall be known and cited as the "restated law enforcement officers' and firefighters' retirement system act."[ 2026 c 261 s 302.]Notes:Effective date—2026 c 261: See note following RCW 41.26A.505.

As used in this chapter, unless a different meaning is plainly required by the context:(1) "Accumulated contributions" means the employee's contributions made by a member, including any amount paid under RCW 41.50.165(2), plus accrued interest credited thereon.(2) "Actuarial rese…

The term "minimum medical and health standards" means minimum medical and health standards adopted by the department under this chapter.[ 2026 c 261 s 304.]Notes:Effective date—2026 c 261: See note following RCW 41.26A.505.

The restated law enforcement officers' and firefighters' retirement system is hereby created for firefighters and law enforcement officers.(1) Notwithstanding RCW 41.26A.030(21), all firefighters and law enforcement officers employed as such on or after March 1, 1970, on a full t…

(1) Notwithstanding any other provision of law after February 19, 1974, no law enforcement officer or firefighter, may become eligible for coverage in the pension system established by this chapter, until the individual has met and has been certified as having met minimum medical…

By July 31, 1971, the director of retirement systems shall adopt minimum medical and health standards for membership coverage into the Washington law enforcement officers' and firefighters' retirement system. In adopting such standards the director of retirement systems shall con…

Nothing in RCW 41.26A.035, 41.26A.045, and 41.26A.046 shall apply to any firefighters or law enforcement officers who are employed as such on or before August 1, 1971, as long as they continue in such employment; nor to promotional appointments after becoming a member in the poli…

(1) A two hundred fourteen thousand dollar death benefit shall be paid to the member's estate, or such person or persons, trust or organization as the member shall have nominated by written designation duly executed and filed with the department. If there be no such designated pe…

(1) Subject to subsections (2) and (3) of this section, the right of a person to a retirement allowance, disability allowance, or death benefit, to the return of accumulated contributions, the retirement, disability, or death allowance itself, any optional benefit, any other righ…

No bond of any kind shall be required of a claimant appealing to the superior court, the court of appeals, or the supreme court from a decision of the director affecting such claimant's right to retirement or disability benefits.[ 2026 c 261 s 311.]Notes:Effective date—2026 c 261…

(1) The annual compensation taken into account in calculating retiree benefits under this system shall not exceed the limits imposed by section 401(a)(17) of the federal internal revenue code for qualified trusts.(2) The department shall adopt rules as necessary to implement this…

Notwithstanding any provision to the contrary, persons who fail to:(1) Establish allowable membership service not previously credited;(2) Restore all or a part of that previously credited membership service represented by withdrawn contributions; or(3) Restore service credit repr…

A member shall not receive a disability retirement benefit under RCW 41.26A.120, 41.26A.125, or 41.26A.130 if the disability is the result of criminal conduct by the member committed after April 21, 1997.[ 2026 c 261 s 314.]Notes:Effective date—2026 c 261: See note following RCW …

Any employer, member or beneficiary who shall knowingly make false statements or shall falsify or permit to be falsified any record or records of the retirement system in an attempt to defraud the retirement system, is guilty of a class B felony punishable according to chapter 9A…

(1) Except as set forth under subsection (2) of this section, the total liability of the plan 1 system shall be funded as follows:(a) Every plan 1 member shall have deducted from each payroll a sum equal to six percent of his or her basic salary for each pay period.(b) Every empl…

Retirement of a member for service shall be made by the department as follows:(1) Any member having five or more service credit years of service and having attained the age of fifty years shall be eligible for a service retirement allowance and shall be retired upon the member's …

(1) A member upon retirement for service shall receive a monthly retirement allowance computed according to his or her completed creditable service credit years of service as follows: Five years but under ten years, one-twelfth of one percent of his or her final average salary fo…

(1) At the time of retirement, plan 1 members may purchase an optional actuarially equivalent life annuity benefit from the Washington law enforcement officers' and firefighters' retirement system plan 1 retirement fund established in RCW 41.50.075. A minimum payment of twenty-fi…

(1) All claims for disability shall be acted upon and either approved or disapproved by either type of disability board authorized to be created in this section.(a) Each city having a population of twenty thousand or more shall establish a disability board having jurisdiction ove…

(1) The director of retirement systems shall adopt rules, in accordance with chapter 34.05 RCW, under which each disability board shall execute its disability retirement duties under this chapter. The rules shall include, but not be limited to, the following:(a) Standards governi…

Any member, regardless of age or years of service may[,] be retired by the disability board, subject to approval by the director, for any disability incurred in the line of duty which has been continuous since his or her discontinuance of service and which renders the member unab…

Any member, regardless of age or years of service, may be retired by the disability board, subject to approval by the director as provided in this section, for any disability not incurred in the line of duty which has been continuous since discontinuance of service and which rend…

(1) Upon retirement for disability a member shall be entitled to receive a monthly retirement allowance computed as follows: (a) A basic amount of fifty percent of final average salary at time of disability retirement, and (b) an additional five percent of final average salary fo…

(1) A disabled member who believes that his or her disability has ceased in accordance with RCW 41.26A.130(3) may make application to the disability board which originally found the member to be disabled, for a determination that the disability has ceased.(2) Every order of a dis…

(1) Upon the basis of reexaminations of members on disability retirement as provided in RCW 41.26A.130, the disability board shall determine whether such disability beneficiary is still unable to perform his or her duties either physically or mentally for service in the departmen…

(1) Whenever any active member, or any member hereafter retired, on account of service, sickness, or disability, not caused or brought on by dissipation or abuse, of which the disability board shall be judge, is confined in any hospital or in home, and whether or not so confined,…

(1) In the event of the duty connected death of any member who is in active service, or who has vested under the provisions of RCW 41.26A.090 with twenty or more service credit years of service, or who is on duty connected disability leave or retired for duty connected disability…

(1) In the event of the nonduty connected death of any member who is in active service, or who has vested under RCW 41.26A.090 with twenty or more service credit years of service, or who is on disability leave or retired, whether for nonduty connected disability or service, the s…

(1) An ex spouse of a law enforcement officers' and firefighters' retirement system retiree shall qualify as surviving spouse under RCW 41.26A.160 or 41.26A.161 if the ex spouse has been provided benefits under any currently effective court decree of dissolution or legal separati…

(1) No later than July 1, 2005, the department shall adopt rules to allow a member who meets the criteria set forth in subsection (2) of this section to choose an actuarially equivalent benefit that pays the member a reduced retirement allowance and upon death, such portion of th…

(1) Should service of a member be discontinued except by death, disability, or retirement, the member shall, upon application therefor, be paid the accumulated contributions within sixty days after the day of application and the rights to all benefits as a member shall cease: PRO…

Each person affected by this chapter who at the time of entering the armed services was a member of this system, and has honorably served in the armed services of the United States, shall have added to the period of service as computed under this chapter, the period of service in…

If a member of this retirement system served as a law enforcement officer or firefighter under a prior pension system and that service is not creditable to this retirement system because the member withdrew his or her contributions plus accrued interest from the prior pension sys…

If a member's prior service as a law enforcement officer or firefighter under a prior pension system is not creditable because, although employed in a position covered by a prior pension act, the member had not yet become a member of the pension system governed by the act, the me…

Any member of the teachers' retirement system plans 1, 2, or 3, the public employees' retirement system plans 1, 2, or 3, the public safety employees' retirement system plan 2, the school employees' retirement system plans 2 or 3, or the Washington state patrol retirement system …

(1) A member who is on a paid leave of absence authorized by a member's employer shall continue to receive service credit as provided under the provisions of this chapter.(2) A member who receives compensation from an employer while on an authorized leave of absence to serve as a…

(1) A member eligible to retire under RCW 41.26A.090 may, at the time of filing a written application for retirement with the department, apply to the department to make a one-time purchase of up to five years of additional service credit.(2) To purchase additional service credit…

Any person feeling aggrieved by any order or determination of a disability board denying disability leave or disability retirement, or canceling a previously granted disability retirement allowance, shall have the right to appeal the order or determination to the director. The di…

Any person aggrieved by any final decision of the director must, before petitioning for judicial review, file with the director of the retirement system by mail or personally within sixty days from the day the decision was communicated to the person, a notice for a hearing. The n…

A hearing shall be held by the director, or the director's duly authorized representative, in the county of the residence of the claimant at a time and place designated by the director. Such hearing shall be de novo and shall conform to the provisions of chapter 34.05 RCW. The di…

For purposes of this section:(1) "Index" shall mean, for any calendar year, that year's average consumer price index—Seattle, Washington area for urban wage earners and clerical workers, all items (1957-1959=100), compiled by the bureau of labor statistics, United States departme…

All benefits presently payable pursuant to the provisions of RCW 41.20.050, 41.20.060, and 41.20.080 as such RCW sections existed prior to the effective date of the amendment of such RCW sections by sections 1, 2, 3, chapter 191, Laws of 1961 to persons who retired prior to the e…

All benefits presently payable pursuant to the provisions of RCW 41.20.085 which are not related to the amount of current salary attached to the position held by the deceased member, shall be increased annually in the same manner and to the same extent as provided for pursuant to…

The legislature of the state of Washington hereby declares that the relationship between members of the restated law enforcement officers' and firefighters' retirement system and their governmental employers is similar to that of workers to their employers and that the sure and c…

If injury or death results to a member from the intentional or negligent act or omission of a member's governmental employer, the member, the widow, widower, child, or dependent of the member shall have the privilege to benefit under this chapter and also have cause of action aga…

(1) Law enforcement officers' and firefighters' plan 1 active members, term-vested members, retirees, and survivors eligible for benefits under the plan 1 provisions of this chapter on June 9, 2022, shall be eligible to receive the plan 1 lump sum defined benefit of $100 per serv…

To the extent that the provisions of chapter 261, Laws of 2026 are inconsistent with the provisions of any other law, the provisions of chapter 261, Laws of 2026 shall be controlling.[ 2026 c 261 s 348.]Notes:Effective date—2026 c 261: See note following RCW 41.26A.505.

The legislature finds that plan 1 of the Washington law enforcement officers' and firefighters' retirement system (LEOFF plan 1) has been closed to new members for nearly a quarter of a century and is now comprised almost entirely of retirees and survivor beneficiaries. Similarly…

Plan 1 of the Washington law enforcement officers' and firefighters' retirement system is restated, and hereby terminated, effective June 30, 2029. During the transition between the restatement and termination and the establishment of the restated law enforcement officers' and fi…