This section of the FEDERAL REGISTER

contains notices to the public of the proposed

issuance of rules and regulations. The

purpose of these notices is to give interested

persons an opportunity to participate in the

rule making prior to the adoption of the final

rules.

Proposed Rules Federal Register

93223 

Vol. 89, No. 228 

Tuesday, November 26, 2024 

FEDERAL RETIREMENT THRIFT 

INVESTMENT BOARD 

5 CFR Part 1653 

Methodology for Calculating Earnings 

on Court-Ordered Payments 

AGENCY: Federal Retirement Thrift 

Investment Board. 

ACTION: Proposed rule. 

SUMMARY: The Federal Retirement Thrift 

Investment Board (FRTIB) proposes to 

change its regulations regarding the 

methodology used to calculate earnings 

and losses in connection with courtordered payments to spouses, former 

spouses, children, or dependents (i.e., 

payees) of Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) 

participants. 

DATES: Comments must be received on 

or before December 26, 2024. 

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments 

using one of the following methods: 

• Federal eRulemaking Portal: 

https://www.regulations.gov. Follow the 

instructions for submitting comments. 

• Mail: Office of General Counsel, 

Attn: Dharmesh Vashee, Federal 

Retirement Thrift Investment Board, 77 

K Street NE, Suite 1000, Washington, 

DC 20002. 

Comments will be made available to 

the public online at https://

www.regulations.gov. Do not include 

any personally identifiable or 

confidential information that you do not 

want publicly disclosed. Anonymous 

comments are acceptable. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

For press inquiries: Kim Weaver at 

(202) 465–5220. 

For information about how to 

comment on this proposed rule: 

Laurissa Stokes at (202) 308–7707. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The 

FRTIB administers the TSP, which was 

established by the Federal Employees’ 

Retirement System Act of 1986 

(FERSA), Public Law 99–335, 100 Stat. 

514. The TSP is a tax-deferred 

retirement savings plan for Federal 

civilian employees and members of the 

uniformed services. The TSP is similar 

to cash or deferred arrangements 

established for private-sector employees 

under section 401(k) of the Internal 

Revenue Code (26 U.S.C. 401(k)). The 

provisions of FERSA that govern the 

TSP are codified, as amended, largely at 

5 U.S.C. 8351 and 8401–79. 

Section 8435(c) of FERSA requires the 

FRTIB to obey certain domestic 

relations court orders requiring 

payments from a TSP participant’s 

account to the participant’s spouse, 

former spouse, child, or dependent. A 

TSP account can be divided by means 

of a court decree of divorce, annulment, 

or legal separation; or a court order or 

court-approved property settlement 

agreement resulting from such a decree. 

A court order to divide a TSP account 

may be issued at any stage of a divorce, 

annulment, or legal separation 

proceeding. 

Court orders sometimes award the 

participant’s spouse, former spouse, 

child, or dependent (i.e., the payee) 

earnings that accrue between the date 

used to calculate the payee’s entitlement 

and the date payment is made. 

Currently, when a court order awards 

earnings, the FRTIB calculates the 

amount to which the payee is entitled 

by determining the payee’s award 

amount (e.g., the percentage or fraction 

of the participant’s account awarded by 

the court) and, based on the 

participant’s investment allocation as of 

the date used to calculate the payee’s 

entitlement, the number and 

composition of shares that the payee’s 

award amount would have purchased as 

of that date. The FRTIB then multiplies 

the price per share as of the payment 

date by the calculated number and 

composition of shares to determine the 

payee’s entitlement. 

The FRTIB contracts with Accenture 

Federal Services to provide, maintain, 

and operate the technology platforms 

necessary to deliver retirement plan 

record keeping services to TSP 

participants. These services include 

processing retirement benefits court 

orders. The FRTIB proposes to update 

its methodology for calculating court 

ordered earnings to align with the 

methodology used by Accenture Federal 

Services. Accenture Federal Services 

calculates earnings by using a moneyweighted return commonly referred to 

in the financial industry as the internal 

rate of return. This methodology 

considers the influence of cash flows 

(for example, contributions, 

withdrawals, loans, and loan payments) 

on asset allocation, and the resulting 

effect on investment performance. 

Specifically, the FRTIB proposes to 

calculate earnings by (i) identifying the 

beginning balance, ending balance, and 

the cash flows between the two balances 

over the period of time between the 

entitlement date and the payment date, 

(ii) calculating the rate of return that 

increases (or reduces in the case of a 

loss) the balance at the beginning of the 

period, accounting for all cash flows, to 

equal the balance at the end of the 

period; and then (iii) multiplying the 

payee’s award amount by the resulting 

rate of return. 

The proposed methodology would 

ensure that the payee’s entitlement 

consists of an award component and an 

earnings component that each reflects 

the percentage or fraction specified in 

the court order. The award component 

reflects the percentage or fraction of the 

participant’s account on the entitlement 

date as specified in the order. The 

earnings component is based on the rate 

of return experienced on the 

participant’s account during the period 

from the entitlement date to the 

payment date. 

Regulatory Flexibility Act 

This proposed regulation will not 

have a significant economic impact on 

a substantial number of small entities. 

This regulation will affect Federal 

employees, members of the uniformed 

services who participate in the TSP, and 

beneficiary participants. 

Paperwork Reduction Act 

This proposed regulation does not 

require additional reporting under the 

criteria of the Paperwork Reduction Act. 

Unfunded Mandates Reform Act of 

1995 

Pursuant to the Unfunded Mandates 

Reform Act of 1995, 2 U.S.C. 602, 632, 

653, and 1501–1571, the effects of this 

regulation on State, local, and tribal 

governments and the private sector have 

been assessed. This regulation will not 

compel the expenditure in any one year 

of $100 million or more by State, local, 

and tribal governments, in the aggregate, 

or by the private sector. Therefore, a 

statement under 2 U.S.C. 1532 is not 

required. 


lotter on DSK11XQN23PROD with PROPOSALS1
93224 Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 228 / Tuesday, November 26, 2024 / Proposed Rules 

List of Subjects in 5 CFR Part 1653 

Alimony, Child support, Government 

employees, Pensions, Retirement. 

Ravindra Deo, 

Executive Director, Federal Retirement Thrift 

Investment Board. 

For the reasons stated in the 

preamble, the FRTIB proposes to amend 

5 CFR chapter VI as follows: 

PART 1653—COURT ORDERS AND 

LEGAL PROCESSES AFFECTING 

THRIFT SAVINGS PLAN ACCOUNTS 

■ 1. The authority citation for part 1653 

continues to read as follows: 

Authority: 5 U.S.C. 8432d, 8435, 8436(b), 

8437(e), 8439(a)(3), 8467, 8474(b)(5) and 

8474(c)(1). 

■ 2. In § 1653.1, amend paragraph (b) by 

adding the definition of ‘‘Entitlement 

date’’ in alphabetical order, and revising 

the definition of ‘‘Payment date’’ to read 

as follows: 

§ 1653.1 Definitions. 

* * * * * 

(b) * * * 

* * * * * 

Entitlement date means the date 

determined in accordance with 

paragraphs (b) and (c) of section 1653.4. 

Payment date refers to the date on 

which a temporary account is 

established for the payee in the TSP. 

* * * * * 

■ 3. Amend § 1653.3 by revising 

paragraph (f)(4)(ii) to read as follows: 

§ 1653.3 Processing retirement benefits 

court orders. 

* * * * * 

(f) * * * 

(4) * * * 

(ii) The anticipated payment date; 

* * * * * 

■ 4. Amend § 1653.4 by revising 

paragraphs (a), (c), (d)(2), and (f) to read 

as follows: 

§ 1653.4 Calculating entitlements. 

(a) For purposes of computing the 

amount of a payee’s entitlement under 

this section, a participant’s TSP account 

balance will include any loan balance 

outstanding as of the entitlement date 

unless the court order provides 

otherwise. 

* * * * * 

(c) If the court order awards a 

percentage of an account but does not 

contain a specific date as of which to 

apply that percentage, the TSP record 

keeper will use the effective date of the 

court order. 

(d) * * * 

(1) * * * 

(2) The vested account balance on the 

payment date. 

* * * * * 

(f) The payee’s entitlement will be 

credited with TSP investment earnings 

as described: 

(1) The entitlement calculated under 

this section will not be credited with 

TSP investment earnings unless the 

court order specifically provides 

otherwise. The court order may not 

specify a rate for earnings. 

(2) If earnings are awarded, the TSP 

record keeper will calculate earnings by: 

(i) Identifying the beginning balance, 

ending balance, and the cash flows 

between the two balances over the 

period of time between the entitlement 

date and the payment date; 

(ii) Calculating the rate of return that 

increases (or reduces in the case of a 

loss) the balance at the beginning of the 

period, accounting for all cash flows, to 

equal the balance at the end of the 

period; and 

(iii) Multiplying the payee’s award 

amount by the resulting rate of return. 

* * * * * 

■ 5. Amend § 1653.5 by revising 

paragraphs (d) and (h) to read as 

follows: 

§ 1653.5 Payment. 

* * * * * 

(d) Payment will be made pro rata 

from the participant’s traditional and 

Roth balances. The distribution from the 

traditional balance will be further pro 

rated between the tax-deferred balance 

and tax-exempt balance. The payment 

from the Roth balance will be further 

pro rated between contributions in the 

Roth balance and earnings in the Roth 

balance. In addition, all payments will 

be distributed pro rata from all TSP core 

funds in which the participant’s account 

is invested. All pro rated amounts will 

be based on the balances in each fund 

or source of contributions on the 

payment date. The TSP record keeper 

will not honor provisions of a court 

order that require payment to be made 

from a specific TSP core fund, source of 

contributions, or balance. 

* * * * * 

(h) If the payee dies before a payment 

is disbursed from the TSP, payment will 

be made to the estate of the payee, 

unless otherwise specified by the court 

order. A distribution to the estate of a 

deceased court order payee will be 

reported as income to the decedent’s 

estate. If the participant dies before the 

payment date, the order will be honored 

so long as it is submitted to the TSP 

record keeper before the TSP account 

has been closed. 

* * * * * 

■ 6. Revise § 1653.14 to read as follows: 

§ 1653.14 Calculating entitlements. 

A qualifying legal process can only 

require the payment of a specified dollar 

amount from the TSP. Payment 

pursuant to a qualifying legal process 

will be calculated in accordance with 

§ 1653.4(a), (d), (f) and (g), except that 

the term ‘‘payment date’’ shall mean to 

the date the payment is disbursed from 

the TSP. 

■ 7. Revise § 1653.15 to read as follows: 

§ 1653.15 Payment. 

Payment pursuant to a qualifying 

legal process will be made in 

accordance with § 1653.5, except the 

term ‘‘payment date’’ shall mean to the 

date the payment is disbursed from the 

TSP. 

■ 8. Amend § 1653.34 by revising 

paragraph (d)(4)(ii) to read as follows: 

§ 1653.34 Processing Federal tax levies 

and criminal restitution orders. 

* * * * * 

(d) * * * 

(4) * * * 

(ii) The anticipated date of 

disbursement. 

[FR Doc. 2024–27484 Filed 11–25–24; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 6760–01–P 

FEDERAL ELECTION COMMISSION 

11 CFR Part 112 

[Notice 2024–25] 

Contributions Through Untraceable 

Electronic Payment Methods 

AGENCY: Federal Election Commission. 

ACTION: Notification of availability of 

petition for rulemaking. 

SUMMARY: The Commission announces 

its receipt of a Petition for Rulemaking 

submitted by Ken Paxton, Attorney 

General of Texas. The Petition asks the 

Commission to amend its regulations 

concerning the use of credit cards to 

make contributions, to address the 

potential use of prepaid cards to 

circumvent contribution amount 

limitations and source prohibitions. 

DATES: Comments must be submitted on 

or before January 27, 2025. 

ADDRESSES: All comments must be in 

writing. Commenters may submit 

comments electronically via the 

Commission’s website at https://

sers.fec.gov/fosers/, reference REG 

2024–08. 

Each commenter must provide, at a 

minimum, his or her first name, last 

name, city and state. All properly 

submitted comments, including 


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