1. (a) A person who lives any part of a day shall be considered to live throughout the entire day. Subject to this limitation, the effective date for death and survivor benefit annuities is the last day of the month preceding the month in which the death of the member occurs, with the first payment due at the end of the month in which the death occurs.
2. (b) Final payment of any annuity will be made at the end of the month in which there occurs the event which terminates the annuity.
3. (c) An eligible member who has applied for service or disability retirement and dies on or after the retirement date will be considered to be "retired" for the computation of death or survivor benefits.

4. (d) Payments of death benefits to multiple beneficiaries named to "share and share alike" will be made according to the recommendations of the consulting actuary retained by the retirement system. Survivor benefits are an alternative to death benefits.

   1. (1) If one or more joint beneficiaries are eligible and elect to receive monthly survivor benefits but one or more joint beneficiaries elect to receive death benefits, the payments to all beneficiaries, including the monthly portion of survivor benefits, will be proportionately reduced to the beneficiary's proportionate interest in the benefits payable.
   2. (2) If all joint beneficiaries elect payment of survivor benefits, the lump-sum portion of the benefits shall be divided equally among the beneficiaries, but the monthly payment may be paid only to beneficiaries eligible to receive such payment. If there are two or more beneficiaries eligible for monthly survivor payments, the entire monthly payment authorized by law will be split in equal portions among the eligible beneficiaries. When only one named beneficiary is eligible for monthly payments, the entire monthly payment authorized by law will be made to that beneficiary.
5. (e) An adult beneficiary or guardian of a minor beneficiary is required to make a selection of payment within 60 days after the death of a member. In circumstances of unusual hardship, the executive director or his designee may extend this period for a reasonable time. A beneficiary may change his selection of payment only during the period allocated for making the original selection and before the issuance of any warrant to him in full or partial payment of death or survivor benefits pursuant to his selection.
6. (f) Except as otherwise provided in this section, payments of death benefits to the beneficiary of a member who dies before any retirement benefits have been paid shall commence no later than one year after the death of the member. Payments on behalf of any deceased member, including lump sum payments, need not commence within the one-year period if all such payments on behalf of the deceased member are completed within five years after the member's death. Furthermore, if the deceased member's spouse is the sole beneficiary, benefits to the spouse may begin as late as December 31 of the year the member would have attained age 70 1/2 had such member lived.

Source Note:The provisions of this §29.34 adopted to be effective January 1, 1976; amended to be effective June 1, 1995, 20 TexReg 3734; amended to be effective June 6, 1999, 24 TexReg 4248; amended to be effective March 12, 2003, 28 TexReg 2104.