40.08 Benefit assignments and corrections.
SUBCHAPTER II
WISCONSIN RETIREMENT SYSTEM
40.21 Participating employers.
40.22 Participating employees.
40.23 Retirement annuities.
40.26 Reentry into service.
40.27 Post-retirement adjustments.
40.285 Purchase of creditable service.
40.29 Temporary disability; creditable service.
40.30 Intrastate retirement reciprocity.
40.31 Maximum benefit limitations.
40.32 Limitations on contributions.
SUBCHAPTER III
SOCIAL SECURITY FOR PUBLIC EMPLOYEES
40.40 State-federal agreement.
SUBCHAPTER IV
HEALTH AND LONG-TERM CARE BENEFITS
40.51 Health care coverage.
40.513 Payment of stipend in lieu of health care coverage for state employees.
40.515 Health savings accounts; high-deductible health plan.
40.52 Health care benefits.
40.55 Long-term care coverage.
40.56 Abortion coverage prohibited.
SUBCHAPTER V
DISABILITY BENEFITS
40.61 Income continuation coverage.
40.62 Income continuation insurance benefits.
40.63 Disability annuities.
40.65 Duty disability and death benefits; protective occupation participants.
SUBCHAPTER VI
SURVIVOR BENEFITS
40.70 Life insurance coverage.
40.71 Death benefit eligibility.
40.72 Life insurance benefits.
SUBCHAPTER VII
DEFERRED COMPENSATION PLANS
40.80 State deferred compensation plan.
40.81 Deferred compensation plan authorization.
40.82 General provisions.
SUBCHAPTER VIII
EMPLOYEE-FUNDED REIMBURSEMENT
ACCOUNTS
40.85 Employee-funded reimbursement account plan.
40.87 Treatment of compensation.
40.875 Administrative and contract costs.
SUBCHAPTER IX
HEALTH INSURANCE PREMIUM CREDITS
40.95 Health insurance premium credits.
TRUST PURPOSES AND ADMINISTRATION
40.01
40.01
Creation and purpose. 40.01(1)(1)
Creation. A “public employee trust fund" is created to aid public employees in protecting themselves and their beneficiaries against the financial hardships of old age, disability, death, illness and accident, thereby promoting economy and efficiency in public service by facilitating the attraction and retention of competent employees, by enhancing employee morale, by providing for the orderly and humane departure from service of employees no longer able to perform their duties effectively, by establishing equitable benefit standards throughout public employment, by achieving administrative expense savings and by facilitating transfer of personnel between public employers.
40.01(2)
(2)
Purpose. The public employee trust fund is a public trust and shall be managed, administered, invested and otherwise dealt with solely for the purpose of ensuring the fulfillment at the lowest possible cost of the benefit commitments to participants, as set forth in this chapter, and shall not be used for any other purpose. Revenues collected for and balances in the accounts of a specific benefit plan shall be used only for the purposes of that benefit plan, including amounts allocated under s.
40.04 (2), and shall not be used for the purposes of any other benefit plan. Each member of the employee trust funds board shall be a trustee of the fund and the fund shall be administered by the department of employee trust funds. All statutes relating to the fund shall be construed liberally in furtherance of the purposes set forth in this section.
40.01(3)
(3)
Compatibility of trustee responsibilities. Membership on the employee trust funds board, group insurance board, deferred compensation board, Wisconsin retirement board and the teachers retirement board shall not be incompatible with any other public office. The board members and the employees of the department shall not be deemed to have a conflict of interest in carrying out their responsibilities and duties in administering this chapter, or taking other appropriate actions necessary to achieve the purposes of this chapter, solely by reason of their being eligible for benefits under the benefit plans provided under this chapter. However, any board member or employee of the department is expressly prohibited from participating in decisions directly related to a specific benefit, credit, claim or application of the person and from participating in negotiations or decisions on the selection of actuarial, medical, legal, insurance or other independent contractors if the board member or employee of the department has a direct or indirect financial interest in or is an officer or employee or is otherwise associated with the independent contractor.
40.01 Annotation
Monies appropriated to the Public Employee Trust Fund are not “state funds"; therefore the legislature may not restrict the use of those funds by a statute governing the use of “state or local funds."
OAG 1-95.
40.015
40.015
Compliance with federal tax laws. 40.015(1)(1)
The Wisconsin retirement system is established as a governmental plan and as a qualified plan for federal income tax purposes under the Internal Revenue Code and shall be so maintained and administered.
40.015(2)
(2) No benefit plan authorized under this chapter may be administered in a manner which violates an Internal Revenue Code provision that authorizes or regulates that benefit plan or which would cause an otherwise tax exempt benefit to become taxable under the Internal Revenue Code.
40.015(3)
(3) For the purposes of compliance with the Internal Revenue Code, the plan year is January 1 through December 31.
40.015 History
History: 1995 a. 302;
2013 a. 20.
40.02
40.02
Definitions. In this chapter, unless the context requires otherwise:
40.02(1m)
(1m) “Accumulation" means the total employee required contributions or employer required contributions or additional contributions as increased or decreased by application of investment earnings.
40.02(2)
(2) “Additional contribution" means any contribution made by or on behalf of a participant to the retirement system other than employee and employer required contributions.
40.02(2m)
(2m) “Alternate payee" means a former spouse or domestic partner of a participant who is named in a qualified domestic relations order as having a right to receive a portion of the benefits of the participant.
40.02(3)
(3) “Annual earnings period" means the calendar year except as follows:
40.02(3)(a)
(a) For a teacher, it means the period beginning on the first day of a school year and ending on the day prior to the beginning of the next school year, as determined by the employer in accordance with rules of the department.
40.02(3)(b)
(b) For a supreme court justice, court of appeals judge or circuit judge who terminates all creditable service on or after May 1, 1992, it means the period beginning on July 1 and ending on the following June 30. This paragraph applies to periods beginning after June 30, 1988.
40.02(3)(c)
(c) For an educational support personnel employee who terminates participating employment on or after July 1, 1997, it means the period beginning on July 1 and ending on the following June 30. This paragraph applies to periods beginning after June 30, 1997.
40.02(3)(d)
(d) For a technical college educational support personnel employee who terminates participating employment on or after July 1, 1998, it means the period beginning on July 1 and ending on the following June 30. This paragraph applies to periods beginning after June 30, 1998.
40.02(3)(e)
(e) For a cooperative educational service agency support personnel employee who terminates participating employment on or after July 1, 1998, it means the period beginning on July 1 and ending on the following June 30. This paragraph applies to periods beginning after June 30, 1998.
40.02(4)
(4) “Annuitant" means a person receiving a retirement annuity, beneficiary annuity or a disability annuity from the Wisconsin retirement system, including a person whose disability annuity has been suspended. For group life insurance purposes, “annuitant" also means annuitants of retirement systems other than the Wisconsin retirement system as determined by the group insurance board for any employer.
40.02(5)
(5) “Annuity" means a series of monthly payments payable during the life of the annuitant or during a specific period. The first installment of each annuity from the Wisconsin retirement system shall be payable on the first day of the calendar month following the annuity effective date as specified in this chapter and shall be the full monthly amount or, if less, the full monthly amount multiplied by a percentage equal to 3.6 percent times the number of days from the effective date of the annuity to the end of the month in which the annuity is effective, counting both the effective date and the last day of the month. Succeeding installments shall be payable as of the first day of each succeeding calendar month. The last payment shall be the payment payable in the calendar month in which the annuitant dies, except as otherwise specifically provided in this chapter. In the case of the death of an annuitant prior to the expiration of any guaranteed number of payments, if the first installment was less than the full monthly amount, an additional payment shall be paid to the beneficiary, in the month after the end of the guarantee period, equal to the then monthly amount payable times the difference between 100 percent and the percent applied in determining the first monthly installment.
40.02(6)
(6) “Assumed benefit rate" means a rate of 5 percent. The assumed benefit rate shall be used for calculating reserve transfers at the time of retirement, making actuarial valuations of annuities in force, determining the amount of lump-sum death benefits payable from the portion of an annuity based on additional deposits and crediting interest to employee required contribution accumulations under s.
40.04 (4) (a) 2. 40.02(7)
(7) “Assumed rate" means the probable average effective rate expected to be earned for the core annuity division on a long-term basis. The assumed rate shall be a rate of 8 percent and the actuarial assumption for across-the-board salary increases for the purpose of valuing the liabilities of the Wisconsin Retirement System shall be 3.4 percent less than the assumed rate unless due to changed economic circumstances the actuary recommends and the board approves a different rate. The assumed rate for a calendar year shall be used for all calculations of required contributions and reserves for participants, except as provided in s.
40.04 (4) (a) 2.,
2g., and
2m., and the amount of any lump sum benefit paid instead of an annuity, except it shall not be used for any purpose for which the assumed benefit rate is to be used under sub.
(6).
40.02(8)(a)1.
1. The person, or a trust in which the person has a beneficial interest, so designated by a participant or insured employee or annuitant in the last written designation of beneficiary on file with, and in the form approved by, the department at the time of death, except as provided in s.
40.23 (4) (c). A written designation of beneficiary for a specified benefit plan applies only for determining beneficiaries under that specified benefit plan.
