At the Retirement and Independent Entities Committee’s first meeting of 2025, lawmakers and Utah Retirement Systems (URS) staff reviewed statutory and programmatic differences in benefits that apply when a public safety employee dies in the line of duty and identified gaps affecting newer employees under tier 2 retirement options.

The discussion mattered because tier 2 members who choose the defined-contribution (401(k)-style) option may have only a modest account balance early in their careers, leaving survivors with much smaller lump-sum payments than beneficiaries of the hybrid/defined-benefit option. “We started to learn about the…holes here,” said Senator Owens, referring to cases that highlighted differences between tier 1 and tier 2 benefits.

URS general counsel D. Larson and URS analyst Corey Cox summarized how state law defines a line-of-duty death and how benefits differ by plan and division. Cox said the statute (Title 49) treats a line-of-duty death as one “that results from external force, violence, or disease occasioned by an act of active duty as a public safety service employee,” and that URS averages final salary differently depending on plan: tier 1 uses a three-year final average salary formula while tier 2 uses five years.

URS staff walked the committee through benefit mechanics. In tier 1 Division A (Social Security–participating employers), a qualifying surviving spouse receives a six-month final average salary lump sum and a monthly benefit equal to 30 percent of the final average salary; if the member had 20 or more years of service the spouse receives a benefit equal to 65 percent of the retirement benefit. In tier 2 hybrid plans the survivor benefit generally includes a lump sum equal to six months of final average salary plus allowances described by Cox; in the defined-contribution option beneficiaries generally receive 75 percent of the highest annual salary plus the vested 401(k) balance, which early-career accounts may not contain in significant amounts.

Cox provided program counts and frequencies used by URS staff: roughly one line-of-duty death per year in the public safety system and about one every two years in the firefighter system. He also listed other potential sources of support for beneficiaries, including the federal Public Safety Officers’ Benefits program (federal lump-sum awards currently in the federal program were described as roughly $450,000), Social Security survivor benefits, workers’ compensation, employer-provided life insurance (the state provides a $50,000 life-insurance benefit to state employees in statute), and private or nonprofit scholarships and foundations.

Lawmakers focused on two categories of response: education and benefit design. Some members described the issue as partly one of awareness—new hires must make a one-time choice in their first year about hybrid versus defined-contribution—and URS staff said enhanced education and enrollment counseling could reduce inadvertent gaps. Other lawmakers asked whether the committee should consider benefit changes or an insurance-style add-on for employers to purchase low-cost line-of-duty coverage. ‘‘If it’s early in the career…there’s not a ton of money potentially in that 401(k),’’ Cox said, urging consideration of education and possible programmatic options.

Committee members agreed to keep the topic on the committee’s study list so staff and stakeholders can return with more analysis, cost estimates and options at a future meeting. The committee later adopted a broader study list that includes the line-of-duty death benefit discussion for further study.

Background details and technical clarifications from URS at the meeting included: the tier 1 final-average salary calculation uses the average of the three highest years; tier 2 uses the highest five years; the hybrid tier 2 default option is chosen by about 85 percent of new employees; and URS staff said employer-purchased line-of-duty insurance (examples include agencies that purchase a line-of-duty policy for fire or forestry personnel) can be inexpensive—for example, URS staff estimated roughly $1.33 per month for every $50,000 of coverage in one illustrative pricing example.

The committee did not adopt any immediate statutory change in the meeting but committed to a follow-up staff review and possible analyses of insurance or benefit-design options.