2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE EIGHTEEN - Education (§§ 1 — 3510-3520) › PART I - Public Schools (§§ 1 — 596d) › Chapter 18C - Commonwealth of Puerto Rico Teacher’s Retirement System Act (§§ 393 — 399d) › Subchapter V - Defined Contribution Program (§§ 397 — 397k) › § 397j - Death, disability, or terminal illness benefits

(a) Death of participant in active service.— In the event that a person who was rendering services and had accumulated contributions in the Defined Contribution Program dies, his/her contributions shall be reimbursed to the person or persons designated by the participant by a written order duly recognized and filed with the Executive Director, or to his/her heirs, if such designation had not been made. The reimbursement shall be equal to the amount of the contributions made and the rate of return until the date of the participant’s death. The Executive Director shall collect from such contributions any outstanding debt that the participant had with the System.
(b) Separation from service due to disability or terminal illness.— Any participant who enrolled in the System after August 1, 2014, and after five (5) years in the public service suffers a disability, whether work-related or not, he/she shall be granted a disability pension by the System computed on the basis of his/her individual contributions, as determined by the System through regulations.
(c) Death of a pensioner.—
(1) Reimbursement of individual contributions.— If a pensioner dies without depleting the balance of all the individual contributions made to the Defined Contribution Program before he/she began to receive pension payments, his/her beneficiaries designated in the System or, in default thereof, his/her heirs, shall have the following options: (A) to continue receiving the monthly pension payments until the contributions made by the participant while he/she was in active service are depleted; or (B) to request the Executive Director in writing to pay such balance in a lump sum, subject to any corresponding deduction required by law. If, at the time of the pensioner’s death, the contributions made by him/her to the Defined Contribution Program, before he/she began receiving pension payments, were depleted by said pensioner through monthly pension payments already received, such monthly payments shall be discontinued and the pensioner’s beneficiaries and/or heirs shall not be entitled to receive any additional payments.
(2) Pension by transfer.—
(A) Defined Contribution Program participants, at the time of retirement, may elect to receive a retirement pension lower than that to which he/she is entitled and provide with the difference as determined by actuaries, one or more pensions for his/her dependents, whose names shall be included in a written order filed with the Executive Director. This privilege shall be granted insofar as the participant undergoes a medical examination and meets the health requirements to be established by the Board in its regulations; provided, that it is proven to the satisfaction of the Executive Director that the designated beneficiaries of the pension by transfer are the participant’s dependents; provided, further, that no pension by transfer resulting from the exercise of this option shall be lower than two hundred forty dollars ($240) per year; and that the amount of such pension by transfer does not exceed the reduced retirement pension to which the participant is entitled, in accordance with his/her option.
(B) The Executive Director shall determine the amount of the pensions by transfer in accordance with the written order of the participant. Every pension by transfer shall begin to be paid upon the death of the participant. If one (1) or more of the designated beneficiaries dies before the participant, the corresponding pension by transfer shall not be paid. Once the retirement pension has been granted, and it is effect and payable, the Executive Director shall not allow any changes to the written order filed with the System; except if the participant dies within thirty (30) days following his/her retirement, in which case it shall be considered that said participant died while in active service.
(C) Pensions granted under this subsection shall be paid for life on a monthly basis, and shall not be increased, reduced, revoked, or repealed, except when they are issued by error or as otherwise expressly provided. The first payment of a pension shall cover the fraction of the current month until the end of the first month; the last payment shall cover the end of the month in which the beneficiary dies.
History —Dec. 24, 2013, No. 160, § 5.11.