1. (a) Under the Act, a participant's accumulated contributions (with interest as allowed thereon under the Act) may become payable to a participant upon terminating subdivision employment and membership in the system prior to retirement, as set forth in the Act, §842.108, or may become payable to the participant's designee or estate under the Act, §844.401, in the event of the participant's death prior to retirement. A domestic relations order regarding a participant who has not yet retired should clearly state the basis upon which any portion of such sums should be payable to an alternate payee. In the event that a domestic relations order does not clearly state how interest allowed on the contributions is to be divided, it will be divided (upon any payment of accumulated contributions under either the Act, §842.108 or §844.401) pro rata on the basis that the amount awarded to the alternate payee bears to the total accumulated contributions.
2. (b) Under the Act, a service retirement benefit or a disability retirement benefit may become payable to the participant (and, upon the participant's death, to a designee) as set forth in the Act, §§844.101 - 844.106 and §§844.301 - 844.305. A domestic relations order regarding a participant should clearly state the basis upon which any portion of such retirement benefit should be payable to an alternate payee.
3. (c) A Group Term Life benefit may become payable under the Act, §844.503 or §844.504, upon the death of a participant who was or had been employed by certain of the subdivisions participating in the system. That benefit is not the property of a participant, but rather is a benefit that is paid by the system as a result of the death of a participant. If any portion of such benefit becomes payable to an alternate payee under the express wording of a qualified domestic relations order, it will be so paid upon the death of the participant; however, if the domestic relations order does not specifically provide that some portion of that benefit is to be paid to an alternate payee, then no portion of the Group Term Life benefit shall be paid otherwise than as set forth in the Act, §844.505.

Source Note:The provisions of this §109.6 adopted to be effective January 29, 1988, 13 TexReg 305; amended to be effective January 10, 1996, 21 TexReg 135; amended to be effective December 30, 2012, 37 TexReg 10250.