N.Y. Retirement & Social Security Law § 76: Vested retirement allowance

§ 76. Vested retirement allowance. a. A member who discontinues

service other than by death or retirement:

1. who has credit for at least five years of total service, or

2. who has credit for at least five years of total service, including

a minimum of five years of member service during which the member

contributed to the system and/or participated in an

increased-take-home-pay or non-contributory plan, and who does not

withdraw his or her accumulated contributions, shall be entitled to make

application pursuant to section seventy of this article for a vested

retirement allowance to be effective on or after the first day of the

month following his or her attainment of sixty years of age. The

retirement allowance provided by this section shall vest automatically

upon such discontinuance of service by such member.

3. In the case of such a member who discontinues service other than by

death or retirement after March thirty-first, nineteen hundred

sixty-five, who had been contributing toward and/or participating in an

increased-take-home-pay or non-contributory plan for retirement on a

basis other than retirement at age sixty for five years preceding his or

her discontinuance of service, he or she shall be entitled to make

application for a vested retirement allowance to be effective on or

after the first day of the month following his or her attainment of

fifty-five years of age.

4. In the case of a member who discontinues service other than by

death or retirement after March thirty-first, nineteen hundred

sixty-six, who had been contributing toward retirement on the basis of

the plan contained in section eighty of this article for at least five

years, he or she shall receive at retirement, on the date when the

member would have completed twenty years of service had he or she

continued in the service covered by such section, a retirement allowance

as computed in accordance with the provisions of subdivision b of this

section.

b. The vested retirement allowance shall be computed and paid in

accordance with the provisions of the plan of which the member had been

a participant provided, however, that, except for those eligible for

benefits pursuant to sections eighty or eighty-a of this chapter, if the

service fraction used to compute the retirement allowance or the pension

provides a benefit greater than that which would have been provided had

the service fraction one-sixtieth been used to compute the benefit, the

service fraction one-sixtieth shall be used to compute the vested

retirement allowance unless such plan shall specify another fraction to

be used to compute the vested retirement allowance. Except for those

covered for retirement pursuant to sections eighty or eighty-a of this

chapter the vested retirement allowance shall not be paid before the

member attains age fifty-five.

c. In the event of the death of such member prior to the effective

date of his retirement his accumulated contributions shall be paid to

his beneficiary or estate in accordance with section fifty-one of this

article.

d. A member may withdraw his accumulated contributions at any time

subject to the limitations contained in section fifty-one of this

article. The withdrawal of a member's accumulated contributions shall

terminate his right to a vested retirement allowance.