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URS to propose technical and definitional code updates in annual administrative bill
Summary
Utah Retirement Systems told the committee it will seek technical statutory clarifications in its annual administrative bill to harmonize definitions, update internal titles and clarify federal limits on relinquishing tax-deferred benefits.
Utah Retirement Systems general counsel Dee Larson briefed the Retirement and Independent Entities Committee on planned administrative and technical statutory changes URS will propose in its annual bill.
Larson said the bill will mainly standardize definitions (for example, "bona fide determination of employment" and "separation of service") that currently appear in different parts of the code so the same terms apply consistently across defined-benefit and defined-contribution plans. Larson said the change is intended to be clarifying and not substantive.
She also described requests from state stakeholders for additional membership-council engagement and for parity in designation rules used by state agencies; URS said it would consider including clarifications that allow certain executive-branch senior roles to be treated consistently with designations available to some local governments.
Larson said URS would update statutory references tied to the agency's internal organization (for example, replacing an obsolete reference to a "deputy director" with the current title of "managing director of retirement") and would clarify the agency's delegation rules for formal decisions and appeals to allow the executive director to delegate to a managing director or senior staff when appropriate.
On benefit relinquishment rules, Larson told the committee that federal tax law limits a member's ability to permanently relinquish tax-deferred pension or savings-plan benefits; URS staff proposed statutory language clarifying that federal law governs relinquishment and that in some cases a beneficiary (not the member) may be able to relinquish a benefit under federal rules.
Larson said URS staff consulted the membership council and stakeholder groups and intends to return the draft bill to the committee for review at a later meeting.
No committee vote occurred; the item was presented for informational review and to solicit early stakeholder input on statutory wording choices.
