Section 21547 Of Article 2. Preretirement Death Benefits From California Government Code >> Division 5. >> Title 2. >> Part 3. >> Chapter 14. >> Article 2.
21547
. (a) Notwithstanding any other provision of this article
requiring attainment of the minimum age for voluntary service
retirement to the member in his or her last employment preceding
death, upon the death of a state member on or after January 1, 1993,
who is credited with 20 years or more of state service, the surviving
spouse, or eligible children if there is no surviving spouse, may
receive a monthly allowance in lieu of the basic death benefit. The
board shall notify the eligible survivor, as defined in Section
21546, of this alternate death benefit. The board shall calculate the
monthly allowance that shall be payable as follows:
(1) To the member's surviving spouse, an amount equal to the
amount the member would have received if the member had retired for
service at minimum retirement age on the date of death and had
elected optional settlement 2 and Section 21459.
(2) If the member made a specific beneficiary designation under
Section 21490, the monthly allowance shall be based only on that
portion of the amount the member would have received described in
paragraph (1) that would have been derived from the nonmember spouse'
s community property interest in the member's contributions and
service credit.
(3) If there is no surviving spouse or the spouse dies before all
of the children of the deceased member attain the age of 18 years, to
the surviving children, under the age of 18 years, collectively, an
amount equal to one-half of, and derived from the same source as, the
unmodified allowance the member would have received if he or she had
retired for service at minimum retirement age on the date of death.
No child shall receive any allowance after marrying or attaining the
age of 18 years. As used in this paragraph, "surviving children"
includes a posthumously born child or children of the member.
(b) This section shall only apply to members employed in state
bargaining units for which a memorandum of understanding has been
agreed to by the state employer and the recognized employee
organization to become subject to this section, members who are
excluded from the definition of state employees in subdivision (c) of
Section 3513, and members employed by the executive branch of
government who are not members of the civil service.
(c) For purposes of this section, "state service" means service
rendered as a state employee, as defined in Section 19815. This
section shall not apply to any contracting agency nor to the
employees of any contracting agency.
(d) For purposes of this section, "state service" includes service
to the state for which the member, pursuant to Section 20281.5, did
not receive credit.