N.Y. Retirement & Social Security Law § 43: Transfer of members between systems

§ 43. Transfer of members between systems. a. Notwithstanding any

other provision of law providing for transfers, any member of any

retirement system maintained by the state or a municipality thereof,

operating on a sound financial basis and subject to the supervision of

the department of financial services of this state may transfer his

membership pursuant to this section to the New York state and local

employees' retirement system, the New York city board of education

employees' retirement system, the New York state teachers' retirement

system, the New York city teachers' retirement system or to the New York

city employees' retirement system. Any member of the New York state and

local employees' retirement system may transfer his membership to any

retirement system, other than the hospital retirement system, which is

operating on a sound basis and is subject to the supervision of the

department of financial services of this state. Any such transfer may be

effectuated only if the member has accepted a position in another branch

of the state or municipal service which would make it:

1. Impossible for him to continue in the retirement system of which he

has been a member, and

2. Possible for him to participate in another such system.

Notwithstanding the foregoing provisions of this subdivision, any

employee who would be eligible to avail himself or herself of the

provisions of this section but for being on leave of absence status from

a prior employment while in his or her present employment, shall be

permitted to transfer his or her retirement system membership pursuant

to the provisions of this section.

Any member of the New York state and local employees' retirement

system, however, who was an employee of any city agency at the time

service with such agency was legislated to be city service may transfer

his membership to the retirement system of such city.

b. In order to effect such a transfer, a member must give notice to

the administrative head of the retirement system of which he or she is a

member, prior to his or her withdrawal therefrom, of his or her

intention to enter such other retirement system. A person so

transferring from one retirement system to another shall be deemed to

have been a member of the system to which he or she has transferred

during the entire period of membership service credited to him or her in

the system from which he or she has transferred. Such transferee,

however, shall not receive more than three per cent interest on his or

her contributions and accumulated contributions unless he or she has

continuously been a member in either the system from which or to which

he or she is transferring since a date prior to July first, nineteen

hundred forty-three. This shall not be construed to prevent a change in

the interest rate to such member if the interest rate payable to other

members of the system to which he or she has transferred is changed. Any

member who heretofore transferred from one retirement system to another

shall, commencing with the effective date of chapter nine hundred three

of the laws of nineteen hundred fifty-seven, be entitled to the same

rights, privileges and benefits, and shall be subject to the same

obligations, as a transferee who thereafter transfers. He or she shall

receive no credit for prior service, except as hereinafter provided. He

or she shall be permitted to deposit in the second retirement system the

total amount of his contributions withdrawn from the first retirement

system.

c. Upon the request for a transfer of credit, the reserve on such

member's benefits, computed as though he had not discontinued

membership, shall be determined by the actuary of the first system in

the following manner:

1. The total present value of all benefits allowable under the

retirement system as the result of contributions made or to be made by

his employer shall be computed.

2. From such total present value there shall be deducted the present

value of the future contributions which would be payable by his employer

on such member's account had he become a member of the retirement

system, subsequent to its establishment, at the age at which he

originally entered the service of his employer. The result so obtained

shall be considered as the reserve on his account in the first

retirement system.

d. Such reserve shall be transferred from the appropriate fund or

funds of the first system to the appropriate fund or funds of the second

system. Such member, thereupon, shall be given such status and credited

with such service in the second retirement system as he was allowed in

the first retirement system. Such contributor, notwithstanding any other

provision of law, shall on retirement be entitled to a pension based on

salary earned during member service in both retirement systems together,

pursuant to the statutory requirements of the second retirement system.

e. The provisions of former subdivision e of this section, as

originally enacted by chapter four hundred eighty-three of the laws of

nineteen hundred forty-five and as codified in such former subdivision e

by chapter eight hundred forty-one of the laws of nineteen hundred

forty-seven, shall apply only to memberships transferred prior to July

first, nineteen hundred forty-nine. Section one hundred seventeen of

this article shall apply to the provisions of this subdivision insofar

as such provisions relate to such memberships.

f. 1. A "New York city member", as defined in subdivision twenty of

section two hundred forty-three of the military law, who shall transfer

to another retirement system pursuant to this section shall be given

credit, upon such transfer, for the period of military duty to which

such member would have been entitled pursuant to such subdivision twenty

if he had remained, until the time of death or retirement, in the

retirement system from which he shall so transfer. The amount of

reserves to be transferred under this section for such credit shall be

computed in accordance with this section, shall include pension reserves

for such military duty, and shall be credited by the retirement system

to which the member shall transfer in accordance with the provisions of

such system governing credit for service in world war II, and the city

of New York, or the authority, by which such member is employed

immediately prior to the transfer, shall pay to the retirement system

the amount of the reserve to be transferred on account of such military

service.

2. Any retirement system from which a member shall transfer pursuant

to this subdivision shall have the right to require reasonable proof of

military service, pay status, and any other information relevant to

eligibility for such transfer of credit for military duty.

3. The provisions of this subdivision f shall apply only to a "New

York city member" who has rendered service as an officer or employee of

the city of New York (or any agency thereof) or public corporation, the

officers or employees of which are eligible for membership in a pension

or retirement system maintained by such city, including performance of

such military duty, for at least fifty per centum of the time between

his commencement of such service and the date upon which he has attained

or shall attain age fifty-five.

h. Notwithstanding any other provisions of the law, a former member of

the New York state teachers' retirement system who holds membership in

the New York city teachers' retirement system on the effective date of

this act and who would have been entitled to transfer service credit to

such latter retirement system pursuant to this section had his

membership in the former retirement system not terminated, due to no

negligence on the part of the member, may have his transfer rights under

this section restored by depositing, within one year of the effective

date of this act, in the former retirement system an amount equal to the

contributions withdrawn from such system with regular interest thereon.

j. This subdivision shall apply only to individuals who, subsequent to

vesting in a retirement system, transfer to a second retirement system

whose governing laws require a greater number of years of credit for

vesting than those of the first system, and who, upon such transfer, do

not have the number of years of service credit that is ordinarily

required to vest in such second retirement system.

1. Upon transfer, the number of years of service credit required for

the transferred individual to attain vested rights in the second

retirement system shall be the same as the number of years of service

credit required, under applicable law, for vesting in the first

retirement system.

2. In the event that an individual covered by this subdivision makes

application to retire from such second system prior to attaining the

amount of service credit that would otherwise be necessary to vest in

such second retirement system, and such individual is otherwise eligible

to retire from such second system, the application shall be granted, and

benefits shall be calculated on the basis of the actual amount of

service credit the individual has accrued at the time of retirement.

Transferred service credit shall not be creditable under any plan in the

second retirement system that it would not otherwise be creditable

under.

k. Notwithstanding any other provision of this section, any member of

the New York state and local employees' retirement system or the New

York city teachers' retirement system who retired from service from

either the New York city employees' retirement system or the New York

city board of education retirement system as a member of the career

pension plan maintained by such system and who, but for the fact that he

or she retired, would be eligible for transfer and who has not, in fact,

received a pension payment from such system shall be permitted to

transfer his or her retirement system membership pursuant to the

provisions of this section. In such event, the application for

retirement shall be deemed to have been rescinded and the retirement

system from which the service shall be transferred shall transfer the

appropriate reserves as provided by this section, provided, however,

that with respect to transfers pursuant to this subdivision which occur

on or after the effective date of the chapter of the laws of two

thousand twenty-three that amended this subdivision, except for the

purposes of providing the benefits, if any, of subdivision four of

section five hundred twenty-two of the education law, no determination

of a reserve pursuant to subdivision c of this section or transfer

thereof pursuant to the first sentence of subdivision d of this section

shall be required in the case of any transfer pursuant to this

subdivision with less than ten years of credited service with the

transferring retirement system at the time the transfer is initiated.

With respect to transfers pursuant to this section which occur on or

after the effective date of the chapter of the laws of two thousand

twenty-three that amended this subdivision, the transfer of a pension

reserve shall be required when the member is transferring ten or more

years of credited service from a public retirement system of the state

to any other public retirement system of the state, excluding any

transfers within and between the New York city employees' retirement

system, the New York city teachers' retirement system and the New York

city board of education retirement system. Notwithstanding the provision

of this subdivision or any other provision of law, an individual who

transfers pursuant to this subdivision shall not be required to render

any minimum period of service following transfer in order to be eligible

to receive the full benefit provided hereunder. Notwithstanding the

foregoing, a retiree covered by either the career pension plan or the

fifty-five-year-increased-service-fraction plan who has received a

pension payment or payments from such system shall be eligible for the

provisions of this subdivision upon payment, to the retirement system

from which the pension payment or payments were made, of an amount equal

to such pension payment or payments. After such payments and the pension

reserve, in the case of a member who transfers in ten or more years of

credited service, except when transferring within and between the New

York city employees' retirement system, the New York city teachers'

retirement system and the New York city board of education retirement

system, are received, such person shall be permitted to transfer his or

her retirement system membership pursuant to the provisions of this

section.

l. Notwithstanding any other provision of law to the contrary, with

respect to transfers pursuant to this section which occur on or after

the effective date of the chapter of the laws of two thousand

twenty-three that amended this subdivision, except for the purposes of

providing the benefits, if any, of subdivision four of section five

hundred twenty-two of the education law, no determination of a reserve

pursuant to subdivision c of this section or transfer thereof pursuant

to the first sentence of subdivision d of this section shall be required

in the case of any transfer pursuant to this section with less than ten

years of credited service with the transferring retirement system at the

time the transfer is initiated. With respect to transfers pursuant to

this section which occur on or after the effective date of the chapter

of the laws of two thousand twenty-three that amended this subdivision,

the transfer of a pension reserve shall be required when the member is

transferring ten or more years of credited service from a public

retirement system of the state to any other public retirement system of

the state, excluding any transfers within and between the New York city

employees' retirement system, the New York city teachers' retirement

system and the New York city board of education retirement system. For

the purpose of giving the transferring member such status and crediting

such service in the second retirement system as such member was allowed

in the first retirement system in those cases to which this subdivision

shall apply, the transfer shall be deemed complete upon receipt by the

second retirement system of:

1. a statement from the first retirement system of the transferring

member's date of membership in the first retirement system, tier status,

service credited to such membership being transferred, and such other

information as the second retirement system may require to effectuate

the transfer;

2. such member's accumulated contributions from the first retirement

system, if same had not been previously withdrawn, or notice from the

first retirement system that such member had no accumulated

contributions, or notice from the first retirement system that such

member's accumulated contributions had been withdrawn and the amount

thereof and, as applicable, receipt from such member of such member's

accumulated contributions and interest; and

3. the pension reserve in the case of a member who transfers in ten or

more years of credited service, except when transferring within and

between the New York city employees' retirement system, the New York

city teachers' retirement system and the New York city board of

education retirement system.