§ 11:2213 — Definitions

Louisiana § 11:2213

• Jurisdiction: Louisiana
• Title 11: Consolidated Public Retirement Systems

Text

§2213. Definitions
The following words and phrases, as used in this Chapter, unless a different meaning
is plainly required by context, shall have the following meanings:
(1) "Accumulated contributions" shall mean the sum of all the amounts deducted
from the compensation of a member and credited to his individual account in the annuity
savings fund together with regular interest thereon as provided in R.S. 11:2227.
(2) "Actuarial equivalent" shall mean a benefit of equivalent value to the
accumulated contributions, annuity, or benefits, as the case may be, computed on the basis
of such interest and mortality assumptions as are adopted in accordance with the provisions
of R.S. 11:2225(D).
(3) "Annuity reserve" shall mean the present value of all payments to be made on
account of any annuity, or benefit in lieu of any annuity, computed upon the basis of such
mortality tables as shall be adopted by the board of trustees, and regular interest.
(4)(a) For members first employed on or before December 31, 2012, "average final
compensation" shall mean the average annual earned compensation of an employee for any
period of thirty-six successive or joined months of service as an employee during which the
said earned compensation was the highest. In case of interruption of employment, the
thirty-six month period shall be computed by joining employment periods immediately
preceding and succeeding the interruption. The earnings to be considered for the thirteenth
through the twenty-fourth months shall not exceed one hundred fifteen percent of the
earnings for the first through the twelfth months. The earnings to be considered for the final
twelve months shall not exceed one hundred fifteen percent of the earnings of the thirteenth
through the twenty-fourth months.
(b) For members first employed on or after January 1, 2013, "average final
compensation" means the average annual earned compensation of a member for the sixty
highest months of successive employment, or for the highest sixty successive joined months
of employment where interruption of service occurred. The earnings to be considered for the
thirteenth through the twenty-fourth month shall not exceed one hundred fifteen percent of
the earnings of the first through the twelfth month. The earnings to be considered for the
twenty-fifth through the thirty-sixth month shall not exceed one hundred fifteen percent of
the earnings of the thirteenth through the twenty-fourth month. The earnings to be
considered for the thirty-seventh through the forty-eighth month shall not exceed one
hundred fifteen percent of the earnings of the twenty-fifth through the thirty-sixth month.
The earnings for the final twelve months shall not exceed one hundred fifteen percent of the
earnings of the thirty-seventh through the forty-eighth month. The limitations on the
computation of average final compensation contained in this Subparagraph shall not apply
to any twelve-month period during which compensation increased by more than fifteen
percent over the previous twelve-month period solely because of an increase in compensation
by a uniform systemwide increase adopted by a local governing authority.
(5) "Beneficiary" shall mean any person designated by a member or retiree to receive
an annuity, survivor benefit, or other benefit as provided by this Chapter.
(6) "Board of trustees" shall mean the board provided for in R.S. 11:2225 to
administer the retirement system.
(7) "Creditable service" shall mean service for which credit is allowable as provided
in R.S. 11:2218.
(8) "Defined benefit plan" shall mean a pension plan established and maintained by
an employer primarily to provide systematically for the payment of definitely determinable
benefits to employees over a period of years after retirement based upon such factors as years
of service and compensation received by such employees.
(9) "Defined contribution plan" shall mean a pension plan established and
maintained by an employer which provides benefits based upon amounts contributed to an
employee's individual account, plus any earnings allocated to the account, for distribution to
the employee or his beneficiary either at retirement, after a fixed number of years, or upon
the occurrence of some specified event.
(10) "Earnable compensation" shall mean the full amount of compensation earned
by an employee for a given month, including supplemental pay paid by the state of Louisiana,
but shall not include overtime.
(11) "Employee" shall mean any of the following classifications:
(a)(i) Any full-time police officer, empowered to make arrests.
(ii) Any full-time police officer, decommissioned due to illness or injury, employed
by a municipality of the state of Louisiana, and engaged in law enforcement.
(iii) Any person who is employed on a full-time basis by a police department of any
municipality of this state, who is under the direction of a chief of police, and who does not
meet any other definition of employee.
(iv) Any person listed in this Subparagraph shall only be defined as an employee if
he is earning at least three hundred seventy-five dollars per month excluding state
supplemental pay.
(b) Any elected chief of police whose salary is at least one thousand dollars per
month.
(c) Any academy recruit, who shall be defined as a full-time municipal employee,
who is participating in, or who is awaiting participation in, a formal training program as
required by Peace Officer Standards and Training Certification, previous to commission as
a municipal police officer, with complete law enforcement officer authority.
(d) Any full-time secretary to an appointed chief or elected chief of police.
(e) Any full-time employee of this system.
(f) Any legal investigator employed by the city of Baton Rouge and parish of East
Baton Rouge in the parish attorney's office who receives state supplemental pay and who
transferred into the Municipal Police Employees' Retirement System on the date of February
26, 2000, as a result of the merger agreement between the system and the city-parish of that
date. Such a legal investigator with a break in service after February 26, 2000, shall retain
membership or retiree status only to the extent of his deferred vested benefit attributable to
service credit earned prior to the break in service.
(g) Any member who retires after June 30, 2021, and who is employed on a full-time
basis by a police department of any municipality in Louisiana.
(h) Employee shall not mean a city or ward marshal or deputy marshal, nor shall this
term be construed to include any elected councilman or mayor of any city.
(i) Notwithstanding any provisions of Item(a)(iii) of this Paragraph to the contrary
and in conformity with the provisions of R.S. 11:2214(A)(2)(b), "employee" shall mean any
person employed by the Baton Rouge Police Department who is a law enforcement
employee, and "employee" shall not mean any person employed by the Baton Rouge Police
Department who is not a law enforcement employee. For purposes of this Subparagraph,
"law enforcement employee" means any person occupying a position within a class title that,
subject to the merger agreement, was included in the membership of the system on June 10,
2024. For any position in the Baton Rouge Police Department within a class title created
after June 10, 2024, "law enforcement employee" shall mean a person occupying a position
that makes the person eligible to receive state supplemental pay.
(j) Any person who is not a full-time police officer and who, on June 30, 2024, met
the definition of employee only under Item (a)(iii) of this Paragraph and was enrolled in
another municipal retirement system is not an employee.
(k) Employee shall also mean any person employed by the Baton Rouge Regional
Airport Authority who would be a system member if employed by the city of Baton Rouge.
(12) "Employer" shall mean any municipality in the state of Louisiana which employs
a full-time police officer, empowered to make arrests, or which has an elected chief of police
whose salary is at least one thousand dollars per month, the Baton Rouge Regional Airport
Authority, and the Municipal Police Employees' Retirement System.
(13) "Full-time" shall mean employment on a permanent, regularly scheduled basis
for at least an average of thirty hours per week.
(14) "Medical board" shall mean the State Medical Disability Board.
(15) "Member" shall include any employee, as defined in Paragraph (11) of this
Section, included in the membership of this system as provided in R.S. 11:2214. In any case
of doubt the board of trustees shall be the sole judge as to eligibility for membership.
(16) "Member's annuity" shall mean that monthly payment provided by the member's
accumulated contributions at the time of regular retirement, or death, computed upon the
basis of such mortality tables as shall be adopted by the board of trustees, and regular
interest.
(17) "Membership service" shall mean service as an employee or elected official
while a member of this system.
(18) "Prior service" shall mean service rendered prior to the enrollment of an
employee into this retirement system, as a municipal policeman, as a member of the state
police, or as a sheriff or deputy sheriff in Louisiana for which credit is not given in any other
retirement system; provided that notwithstanding any provision of this Chapter that may be
to the contrary, no credit whatsoever shall be given in this retirement system, whether as
prior service or creditable service, for any out of state service, nor shall any credit for prior
service be given to any person who becomes a member after July 31, 1976, except that any
person employed by any municipality and is required to pay social security contributions for
such employment by the United States Department of Health, Education, and Welfare shall
receive prior service credit provided he becomes a member of this retirement system prior
to January 1, 1977.
(19) "Retirement" shall mean withdrawal from active service with a retirement
allowance granted under the provisions of this Chapter.
(20) "Retirement allowance" shall mean any benefit paid to a member under R.S.
11:2220(A) or any optional benefit payable in lieu thereof.
(21) "Retirement system" or "system" shall mean the Municipal Police Employees'
Retirement System as established in R.S. 11:2211.
(22) "Service" shall mean service rendered as an employee as described in Paragraph
(11) of this Section.
(23) "Special needs trust" shall mean a trust that is established for the sole benefit
of a member's child who meets the definition of an individual with a disability under the
federal Social Security Act, that permits such child to qualify for public benefits, including
but not limited to those under the federal Social Security Act such as Supplemental Security
Income and Medical Assistance, and that terminates upon the death of the child.
(24) "Student" shall mean a person who satisfies both of the following:
(a) The person is enrolled in a high school or postsecondary education institution
duly accredited or approved by the appropriate state, regional, or professional accrediting
agency which is recognized by the state in which it is located or by the United States
Department of Education pursuant to the applicable laws, rules, or regulations.
(b) The person is enrolled in a sufficient number of courses and classes in such
institution to be classified as a full-time regular student under the criteria used by the
institution in which he is enrolled. The educational institution shall provide written
notification to the system that the person is in full-time status.
(25)(a) "Surviving child" shall mean an unmarried person under the age of eighteen
years or an unmarried student under the age of twenty-three years, if the person or student
is one of the following:
(i) The issue of a marriage of a member of this system.
(ii) The legally adopted child of a member of this system.
(iii) A child born outside of marriage of a female member of this system.
(iv) The child of a male member of this system, if a court of competent jurisdiction
has, pursuant to the provisions of the Civil Code, rendered a judgment of filiation declaring
the paternity of such member for the child or the member has formally acknowledged the
child.
(b) "Surviving child" shall also mean a person, regardless of age, who meets one of
the criteria in Items (a)(i) through (iv) of this Paragraph who has a total physical disability
or intellectual disability, as certified by the medical board, if the person had the disability at
the time of death of the member or acquired the disability prior to the attainment of age
eighteen and is dependent upon the surviving spouse or other legal guardian for subsistence.
(26) "Survivor's benefit" shall mean any benefit paid to a survivor of a member under
R.S. 11:2220(B), 2241.8, or 2242.8.
NOTE: See Acts 2013, No. 236, §2, regarding retroactivity of Subparagraph
(11)(f) of this Section as amended by that Act.

Legislative History

Added by Acts 1973, No. 189, §1. Amended by Acts 1974, No. 389, §1; Acts 1975, No. 377, §1; Acts 1976, No. 603, §1; Acts 1978, No. 727, §5, eff. Jan. 1, 1979; Acts 1979, No. 105, §1; Acts 1982, No. 271, §1; Acts 1986, No. 605, §3; Acts 1988, 2 nd Ex. Sess., No. 6, §3, eff. Oct. 31, 1988; Redesignated from R.S. 33:2372 by Acts 1991, No. 74, §3, eff. June 25, 1991; Acts 1992, No. 262, §1; Acts 1992, No. 553, §1, eff. July 1, 1992; Acts 1993, No. 758, §1, eff. June 22, 1993; Acts 1995, No. 576, §1; Acts 1999, No. 1179, §1, eff. July 1, 1999; Acts 2011, No. 238, §1, eff. June 30, 2011; Acts 2012, No. 522, §1; Acts 2013, No. 236, §1, eff. June 30, 2013; Acts 2018, No. 345, §1, eff. June 30, 2018; Acts 2020, No. 249, §1, eff. July 1, 2020; Acts 2024, No. 536, §1, eff. June 10, 2024; Acts 2025, No. 118, §2, eff. June 8, 2025.