Allows a beneficiary of a member whose death occurs on or after July 1, 2025 and who would have been entitled to a service credit at the time of such member's death to elect to receive a lump sum payment equal to the pension reserve that would have been established had the member retired on the date of such member's death.
NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A6288
SPONSOR: Jones TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the retirement and social security law, in relation to
allowing beneficiaries of certain deceased members to elect to receive
death benefits in a lump sum
PURPOSE:
To modify the in-service death benefit for participants in Section 89
retirement plan codified in the Retirement and Social Security Law
(RSSL).
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section 1 adds a new paragraph 3 to subdivision b of Section 448 of the
Retirement and Social Security Law to authorize beneficiaries of the
Section 89 retirement plan participants to receive, in a lump sum, an
amount equal to the pension reserve that would have been established had
the member retired on the date of his or her death, or the value of the
death benefit and the reserve-for-in-creased-take-home pay, if any,
whichever is greater.
Section 1 amends subdivision b of Section 508 of the Retirement and
Social Security Law to provide the same benefit for members holding one
of the same Section 89 titles but in a different tier.
Section 3 is the effective date.
JUSTIFICATION:
This bill provides state correctional officers employed at the Depart-
ment of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS) as well as securi-
ty hospital treatment assistants employed by the Office of Mental Health
(OMH) with a death gamble benefit. The death gamble was enacted for New
York law enforcement officers, firefighters and teachers in 2000 (Chap-
ter 554) to incentivize public employees who wish to work past retire-
ment age by providing that should the employee pass away before taking
retirement, his or her family shall be able to receive the full value of
his or her pension benefit. The death gamble was most recently extended
to Nassau and Suffolk County correction officers in Chapters 534 and 535
of 2021 -.but not to DOCCS officers or any other type of frontline civil
servant.
In extending this benefit to the other civil service titles captured by
this bill, New York State can ensure that our most senior and experi-
enced correctional officers and security hospital treatment assistants
have some form of incentive to remain on the job past retirement eligi-
bility. Based on the number of seasoned employees leaving state service,
New York must ensure that those who can properly train our newest
employees remain in active service to ensure the safety of our correc-
tional and forensic psychiatric facilities.
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
2024: S8408/A9084 (AM Jones) - vetoed by the Governor - memo 82
2023: S5849/A5630 (AM Jones) - vetoed by the Governor - memo 87
2021-2022: S.8400-A - Reported and Committed to Finance/A.9934 Referred
to Governmental Employees
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
See fiscal note.
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
6288
2025-2026 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
March 3, 2025
___________
Introduced by M. of A. JONES -- read once and referred to the Committee
on Governmental Employees
AN ACT to amend the retirement and social security law, in relation to
allowing beneficiaries of certain deceased members to elect to receive
death benefits in a lump sum
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Subdivision b of section 448 of the retirement and social
2 security law is amended by adding a new paragraph 3 to read as follows:
3 3. Provided further, notwithstanding any other provision of this arti-
4 cle to the contrary, where the member is in a title as defined in subdi-
5 vision i of section eighty-nine of this chapter, and would have been
6 entitled to a service retirement benefit at the time of such member's
7 death and where such member's death occurs on or after July first, two
8 thousand twenty-five, the beneficiary or beneficiaries nominated for the
9 purposes of this subdivision may elect to receive, in a lump sum, an
10 amount payable which shall be equal to the pension reserve that would
11 have been established had the member retired on the date of such
12 member's death, or the value of the death benefit and the reserve-for-
13 increased-take-home-pay, if any, whichever is greater.
14 § 2. Subdivision b of section 508 of the retirement and social securi-
15 ty law, as amended by chapter 476 of the laws of 2018, is amended to
16 read as follows:
17 b. A member of a retirement system subject to the provisions of this
18 article who is a police officer, firefighter, correction officer, inves-
19 tigator revised plan member or sanitation worker and is in a plan which
20 permits immediate retirement upon completion of a specified period of
21 service without regard to age or who is subject to the provisions of
22 section five hundred four or five hundred five of this article, shall
23 upon completion of ninety days of service be covered for financial
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD08636-02-5
A. 6288 2
1 protection in the event of death in service pursuant to this subdivi-
2 sion.
3 1. Such death benefit shall be equal to three times the member's sala-
4 ry raised to the next highest multiple of one thousand dollars, but in
5 no event shall it exceed three times the maximum salary specified in
6 section one hundred thirty of the civil service law or, in the case of a
7 member of a retirement system other than the New York city employees'
8 retirement system, or in the case of a member of the New York city
9 employees' retirement system who is a New York city uniformed
10 correction/sanitation revised plan member or an investigator revised
11 plan member, the specific limitations specified for age of entrance into
12 service contained in subparagraphs (b), (c), (d), (e) and (f) of para-
13 graph two of subdivision a of this section.
14 2. Provided further, notwithstanding any other provision of this arti-
15 cle to the contrary, where the member is in a title as defined in subdi-
16 vision i of section eighty-nine of this chapter, and would have been
17 entitled to a service retirement benefit at the time of such member's
18 death and where such member's death occurs on or after July first, two
19 thousand twenty-five, the beneficiary or beneficiaries nominated for the
20 purposes of this subdivision may elect to receive, in a lump sum, an
21 amount payable which shall be equal to the pension reserve that would
22 have been established had the member retired on the date of such
23 member's death, or the value of the death benefit and the reserve-for-
24 increased-take-home-pay, if any, whichever is greater.
25 § 3. This act shall take effect immediately.
FISCAL NOTE.--Pursuant to Legislative Law, Section 50:
This bill would modify the in-service death benefit for retirement
eligible members of the New York State and Local Employees' Retirement
System employed by New York State as correction officers and security
hospital treatment assistants. The in-service death benefit will be the
value of the pension reserve as if the member had retired on their date
of death.
If this bill is enacted during the 2025 Legislative Session, we antic-
ipate that there will be an increase of approximately $1.7 million in
the annual contributions of the State of New York for the fiscal year
ending March 31, 2026. In future years this cost will vary but is
expected to average 0.1% of salary annually.
In addition to the annual contributions discussed above, there will be
an immediate past service cost of approximately $16.6 million which will
be borne by the state of New York as a one-time payment. This estimate
assumes that payment will be made on March 1, 2026.
These estimated costs are based on 15,927 affected members employed by
the State of New York, with annual salary of approximately $1.5 billion
as of March 31, 2024.
Summary of relevant resources:
Membership data as of March 31, 2024 was used in measuring the impact
of the proposed change, the same data used in the April 1, 2024 actuari-
al valuation. Distributions and other statistics can be found in the
2024 Report of the Actuary and the 2024 Annual Comprehensive Financial
Report. The actuarial assumptions and methods used are described in the
2024 Annual Report to the Comptroller on Actuarial Assumptions, and the
Codes, Rules and Regulations of the State of New York: Audit and
Control. The Market Assets and GASB Disclosures are found in the March
31, 2024 New York State and Local Retirement System Financial Statements
and Supplementary Information.
A. 6288 3
This fiscal note does not constitute a legal opinion on the viability
of the proposed change nor is it intended to serve as a substitute for
the professional judgment of an attorney.
This estimate, dated February 26, 2025, and intended for use only
during the 2025 Legislative Session, is Fiscal Note No. 2025-62. As
Chief Actuary of the New York State and Local Retirement System, I,
Aaron Schottin Young, hereby certify that this analysis complies with
applicable Actuarial Standards of Practice as well as the Code of
Professional Conduct and Qualification Standards for Actuaries Issuing
Statements of Actuarial Opinion of the American Academy of Actuaries, of
which I am a member.
