Some California pension plans are beginning to decide how to implement a recent California Supreme Court decision involving the so-called California rule for calculating pension benefits.
The California rule has been adopted by about a dozen other states.
The $10.1 billion San Bernardino County (Calif.) Employees' Retirement Association was one of the first to take action. On Aug 6, its board voted to exclude certain kinds of pay including standby pay, on-call pay, and callback pay as required by the court decision.
This means that pension plan officials will need to recalculate the retirement benefits of some retirees, which is a relatively small group, SBCERA said in a written statement posted on its website.
SBCERA delayed any decision about refunding employee contributions that were based on the excluded kinds of pay. SBCERA also delayed a decision on getting back overpaid retiree pension benefits.
Two other retirement plans are expected to consider the question of implementing the court decision in coming days: the $3.1 billion San Joaquin County Employees' Retirement Association, Stockton, Calif., and the $916 million Merced County (Calif.) Employees' Retirement Association. Merced was one of the plaintiffs in the California Supreme Court case.
