2023 New York Laws › RSS - Retirement and Social Security › Article 2 - New York State Employees' Retirement System › Title 7 - Death Benefits and Disability Retirement › 60-B - Guaranteed Ordinary Death Benefit for Participating Employers.

§ 60-b. Guaranteed ordinary death benefit for participating employers.
(a)  Pursuant to the provisions of section thirty-three of this article,
a participating employer may elect  to  provide  a  guaranteed  ordinary
death  benefit  upon  the death in service of its employees who (i) meet
all the requirements of  section  sixty  of  this  article  except  that
contained  in  paragraph three of subdivision (a) thereof, and (ii) last
entered or reentered the employ of a  participating  employer  prior  to
April  first,  nineteen  hundred eighty-five, and were in such employ on
March thirty-first, nineteen hundred eighty-five, and (iii) last  joined
or  rejoined  a  public retirement system of the state or a municipality
thereof before July first, nineteen hundred seventy-three, and (iv)  had
not  attained  age sixty at the date of such entrance into such service,
and (v) had rendered ninety or more days of continuous  service  in  the
service  of  such participating employer during the fifteen month period
immediately preceding  death.  For  the  purposes  of  this  section  an
employee  who  dies  while  off the payroll shall be considered to be in
service provided he or she (1) was on the payroll in  such  service  and
paid  within a period of twelve months prior to his or her death, or was
on the payroll in the service upon which membership is based at the time
he or she was ordered to active duty pursuant to Title 10 of the  United
States Code, with the armed forces of the United States or to service in
the  uniformed services pursuant to Chapter 43 of Title 38 of the United
States Code and died while  on  such  active  duty  or  service  in  the
uniformed  services  on or after June fourteenth, two thousand five, (2)
had not been otherwise gainfully employed since he or she ceased  to  be
on  such  payroll and (3) had credit for one or more years of continuous
service since he or she last entered or reentered the service of his  or
her  employer. Provided, further, that any such member ordered to active
duty pursuant to Title 10 of the United  States  Code,  with  the  armed
forces  of  the  United  States  or to service in the uniformed services
pursuant to Chapter 43 of Title 38 of the United States  Code  who  died
prior  to  rendering  the  minimum  amount  of  service  necessary to be
eligible for this benefit shall be  considered  to  have  satisfied  the
minimum service requirement.
(b)  The guaranteed ordinary death benefit provided under this section
to  the  beneficiary  of  such  employee  shall  be  three   times   the
compensation earnable by him during his last twelve months of service as
a  member,  raised  to the next higher multiple of one thousand dollars,
but in no  event  greater  than  twenty  thousand  dollars.  Where  such
employee  dies  before  rendering one year of service, the death benefit
pursuant to this section shall be three times the compensation that  the
member  would  have  earned had he worked for twelve months prior to the
date of his death, raised to the next higher multiple  of  one  thousand
dollars, but in no event greater than twenty thousand dollars.
(c)  The  beneficiary  shall  receive  the  benefits  provided by this
section or those provided by section sixty of  this  article,  whichever
are greater.
(d)  The  provisions  of this section shall apply in the case of death
occurring on or after this section becomes law and prior to July  first,
nineteen hundred seventy-four.