2023 New York Laws › RSS - Retirement and Social Security › Article 8 - New York State and Local Police and Fire Retirement System › Title 9 - General Provisions Relating to Retirement; Retirement Plans Applicable to Members Generally › 376 - Vested Retirement Allowance.

§  376.  Vested  retirement  allowance.  a.  A member who discontinues
  service other than by death or retirement:
1. who has credit for at least five years of total service, or
2. who has credit for at least five years of total service,  including
  a  minimum  of  five  years  of  member  service during which the member
  contributed    to    the    system    and/or    participated    in    an
  increased-take-home-pay  or  non-contributory  plan,  and  who  does not
  withdraw his or her accumulated contributions, shall be entitled to make
  application pursuant to section three hundred seventy  of  this  article
  for  a vested retirement allowance to be effective on or after the first
  day of the month following his or her attainment of sixty years of  age,
  or  sixty-three  years of age for a member who first becomes a member of
  the New York state and local police and fire  retirement  system  on  or
  after  April  first,  two  thousand  twelve.  The  retirement  allowance
  provided  by  this  section   shall   vest   automatically   upon   such
  discontinuance of service by such member.
3. In the case of such a member who discontinues service other than by
  death   or   retirement   after  March  thirty-first,  nineteen  hundred
  sixty-six, who had been contributing toward and/or participating  in  an
  increased-take-home-pay  or  non-contributory  plan  for retirement on a
  basis other than retirement at age sixty for five years preceding his or
  her discontinuance of service, he or  she  shall  be  entitled  to  make
  application  for  a  vested  retirement  allowance to be effective on or
  after the first day of the month following  his  or  her  attainment  of
  fifty-five  years  of  age, or sixty-three years of age for a member who
  first becomes a member of the New York state and local police  and  fire
  retirement system on or after April first, two thousand twelve.
b.  The  vested  retirement  allowance  shall  be computed and paid in
  accordance with the provisions of the plan of which the member had  been
  a  participant  provided,  however, that if the service fraction used to
  compute the retirement allowance  or  the  pension  provides  a  benefit
  greater  than  that  which  would  have  been  provided  had the service
  fraction one-sixtieth been used to  compute  the  benefit,  the  service
  fraction  one-sixtieth  shall  be  used to compute the vested retirement
  allowance unless such plan shall specify another fraction to be used  to
  compute the vested retirement allowance. The vested retirement allowance
  shall  not  be  paid  before  the  member  attains  age  fifty-five,  or
  sixty-three years of age for a member who first becomes a member of  the
  New  York  state and local police and fire retirement system on or after
  April first, two thousand twelve.
c. In the event of the death of such member  prior  to  the  effective
  date  of  his  retirement his accumulated contributions shall be paid to
  his beneficiary or estate  in  accordance  with  section  three  hundred
  fifty-one of this article.
d.  A  member  may  withdraw his accumulated contributions at any time
  subject to the limitations contained in section three hundred  fifty-one
  of  this article. The withdrawal of a member's accumulated contributions
  shall terminate his right to a vested retirement allowance.