The Public Employees’ Retirement Law (PERL) establishes the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) to provide pension and other benefits to members of CalPERS. Current law permits a member of CalPERS to elect from among several optional settlements for the purpose of structuring the member’s retirement allowance, and prohibits a member who elects to receive specified optional settlements from changing the member’s optional settlement and designated beneficiary after election of an optional settlement, unless certain circumstances arise.
Commencing January 1, 2026, Assembly Bill 1246 (AB 1246) will permit a CalPERS member who remarries and had previously elected to receive a specified optional settlement at retirement to add their new spouse as the beneficiary of the member’s interest, if the member’s former spouse was named as beneficiary, and a legal judgment awards only a portion of the interest in the retirement system to the retired member. AB 1246 also authorizes a member to elect this option only once and will preclude elections that would be in derogation of the former spouse’s interest in the retirement system. The law will preclude elections that would result in additional costs to the employer.
(AB 1246 amends sections 21462 and 21481 of the Government Code.)