2023 Massachusetts General Laws › Part I - Administration of the Government › Title IV - Civil Service, Retirements and Pensions › Chapter 32 - Retirement Systems and Pensions › Section 85j - Pensions for Policemen and Fire Fighters or Their Widows; Optional Provisions

Section 85J. Any policeman or fire fighter who is eligible for superannuation retirement under sections eighty to eighty-five, inclusive, or section eighty-five E in effect in the city or town in which he is employed shall have the right at the time of his retirement to elect one of the following options for the payments of his pension:—
Option A.
—The full yearly amount of pension payable under the provisions of sections eighty to eighty-five, inclusive, or section eighty-five E to such policeman or fire fighter on the date of his retirement.
Option B.
—A lesser amount of yearly pension which shall be payable to such policeman or fire fighter during his lifetime, with a provision that two thirds of the yearly amount of such lesser pension shall be continued during the lifetime of and paid to his widow who was his spouse at the time of his retirement; provided, however, that the surviving spouse shall receive not less than two thirds of the pension such policeman or fire fighter is receiving at the time of his death. The yearly amount of such lesser pension shall be determined so that the value, on the date the retirement and pension becomes effective, of the prospective payments to such policeman or fire fighter and to such widow shall be the actuarial equivalent of the value on such date of the full pension specified in option A of this section.
If a policeman or fire fighter who has served continuously for not less than twenty years in any city or town where he would be eligible for retirement under the provisions of sections eighty to eighty-five, inclusive, or section eighty-five E, dies before being retired, his widow shall receive two thirds of the yearly amount of said option B allowance to which such policeman or fire fighter would have been entitled had he attained age sixty, and had his retirement taken place on the date of his death. Said yearly amount shall be paid to such a widow so long as she remains unmarried; provided, that she has been married to such policeman or fire fighter not less than ten years prior to his death, and that they were living together at the time of his death, or living apart for justifiable cause other than desertion or moral turpitude on the part of the wife.
The computation of the actuarial equivalent of the pension payable to any policeman or firefighter and the widow under the provisions of this option shall be subject to the supervision and verification by the actuary appointed by the public employee retirement administration commission in accordance with the provisions of section twenty-one, and the expenses for such service shall be paid by the city or town in which such policeman or firefighter was employed.
The provisions of this section shall become effective in a city having a Plan D or Plan E charter by the affirmative vote of two thirds of all the members of the city council, and in the case of any other city by vote of the city council subject to the provisions of its charter, and in a town by a majority vote at an annual town meeting.