Oklahoma § 44-271 - Supplemental retirement pay — Eligibility — Terms

§ 44-271. Supplemental retirement pay — Eligibility — Terms

A. The provisions of this section shall not be operative and no

payments shall be made from the Oklahoma National Guard Supplemental

Retirement Pay Revolving Fund created in Section 19 of this act

until November 1, 2027.

B. The provisions of this section shall only be applicable to a

member of the Oklahoma National Guard who has accrued enough service

credit prior to the effective date of this act in order to retire

from the system maintained by the Defense Finance and Accounting

Service, or its successor in interest, for the benefit of members of

state National Guards, but who has not attained the required age

prior to the effective date of this act in order to be paid the full

amount of such benefit. No member of the Oklahoma National Guard

shall be eligible to receive a payment pursuant to the provisions of

Oklahoma Statutes - Title 44. Militia

this section unless the member has completed twenty-five (25) years

of military service and retires as a member of the Oklahoma National

Guard.

C. The provisions of this section shall not be applicable to

any person who retires with an active duty military pension.

D. The amount of the payment shall be determined as follows:

1. Determine the amount of retirement the member would receive

if the member had reached the age to accrue federal retirement

benefits;

2. If the members of the active duty military retirement system

were eligible for a cost-of-living adjustment for the year for which

the computation of the payment amount authorized by this section is

to be made, the cost-of-living adjustment amount in an annualized

form shall be added to the result of the computation in paragraph 1

of this subsection each year; and

3. The resulting amount shall be paid to the Oklahoma National

Guard member in twelve (12) equal monthly amounts with allowance as

required for rounding.

E. Any benefit payable to an eligible member of the Oklahoma

National Guard shall only be payable during the member's lifetime,

and no benefit authorized pursuant to the provisions of this section

shall be payable to a beneficiary other than amounts paid to a

member prior to the member's death which are payable to another

person pursuant to the provisions of a joint tenancy bank account

with a right of survivorship naming a person or persons as

beneficiary, a bank account with a transfer on death or payable on

death feature, an express trust, including, but not limited to, a

trust created by the payee member during his or her lifetime, a will

or the statute of intestate succession for distribution of the

assets of a person who does not otherwise provide for the

disposition of his or her assets after death.

F. The payment otherwise authorized pursuant to the provisions

of this act may only be made to a person who has become eligible to

receive retirement benefits from the retirement system under the

supervision of the Defense Finance and Accounting Service, or its

successor in interest, as of the date the first payment pursuant to

this act is authorized.

G. The payments authorized by this section shall be paid to the

eligible member until the member begins to receive federal

retirement benefits from the Defense Finance and Accounting Service,

or its successor in interest, but shall not be paid for any period

of time after such time period.

H. In the event the funds required for full payment to all

eligible members pursuant to the provisions of this section are not

sufficient, the payments to the eligible members shall be prorated

by dividing the total number of eligible members by the total amount

of available funds. The resulting quotient shall be multiplied by

Oklahoma Statutes - Title 44. Militia

the payment amount otherwise due to the eligible member and the

result of that computation shall be the reduced dollar amount paid

to each member for the applicable period. For any period of time

during which payments are prorated pursuant to this subsection, the

next increment of available funds shall be used to make payments to

the eligible members whose payment amounts were prorated to

compensate for the reduction made in the prior payment period.

Added by Laws 2025, c. 344, § 18, eff. Nov. 1, 2025.