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Read. Follow. Verify.North Carolina Rewrites and Standardizes Retirement Death Benefit Plans Across State Systems
Last action · June 13, 2025: Ch. SL 2025-11Sponsors: Carson Smith and 3 others
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What This Bill Would Do
North Carolina recodifies and standardizes death benefit plans and the North Carolina Teachers' and State Employees' for state employees, local government employees, judicial members, and legislative members, effective July 1, 2025, or when the act becomes law.
Changes administrative structures and funding mechanisms for public retirement system death benefits, establishes an irrevocable master trust to hold plan assets separate from creditor claims, and permits up to 0.04% of state employer contribution rates to fund line of duty death benefits.
- North Carolina operates several distinct public retirement systems, including the Teachers' and State Employees' Retirement System, the Local Governmental Employees' Retirement System, the Consolidated Judicial Retirement System, and the Legislative Retirement System. context
- Death benefits for public employees in North Carolina previously existed across scattered sections of Chapters 120, 128, and 135 of the General Statutes before being recodified by this act. context
Who It Would Affect
Groups the bill's text would affect if enacted, as described in the record. Being affected is not a position for or against it.
State employees and teachers
Their death benefit plans, eligibility rules, and trust fund protections are recodified, standardized, and placed under a master benefit trust.
Local governmental employees
Their death benefit plans are structured under a new local governmental death benefit plan requiring employer participation agreements or mandatory coverage for law enforcement officers.
Retired members
Fully contributory death benefit options, premium deduction methods, and payout structures are standardized across retirement systems.
Key Facts
- Creates the North Carolina Teachers' and State Employees' Benefit Trust as a master trust to deposit receipts, contributions, and earnings, and disburse benefits and expenses for participating plans.
- Mandates that assets of the Benefit Trust cannot be used for liabilities of another participating plan, cannot be distributed to entities other than states or political subdivisions, and are not subject to creditors' claims.
- Sets in-service member lump-sum death benefit amounts to a minimum of $25,000 and a maximum of $50,000 under the Teachers' and State Employees' Retirement System and Local Governmental Employees' Retirement System.
- Permits retired members who elect fully contributory death benefits to receive $10,000 upon completing 24 months of contributions, or a return of contributions plus interest if death occurs earlier.
Show all 8 facts
- Authorizes the Board of Trustees to allocate up to 0.04% of the State's employer contribution rate into a separate fund for line of duty death benefits awarded under the Public Safety Employees' Death Benefits Act.
- Modifies survivor's alternate benefit eligibility provisions effective July 1, 2025, allowing surviving spouses of members who completed at least five years of membership service to elect alternate retirement allowances under specific conditions.
- Recodifies and consolidates statutes relating to death benefit plans across Chapters 120, 128, 135, and 143 of the General Statutes.
- Repeals obsolete statutory provisions and restructures administrative oversight of retirement system death benefits under the Board of Trustees.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the North Carolina Teachers' and State Employees' Benefit Trust?
What are the minimum and maximum lump-sum death benefit amounts for in-service members?
How are line of duty death benefits funded under this legislation?
What else do you want to know?
News Coverage
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Votes, people, money & the original sourceWhere This Stands
Currently passed both. The next step in the legislative lifecycle is Law.
Procedural history
33 actions- Jun 3, 2025HouseOrdered Enrolled
- Jun 3, 2025HouseConcurred In S Com Sub
- Jun 2, 2025HousePlaced On Cal For 06/03/2025
- Jun 2, 2025HouseWithdrawn From Com
- May 27, 2025HouseRef To Com On Rules, Calendar, and Operations of the House
- May 23, 2025HouseRegular Message Received For Concurrence in S Com Sub
Show 27 earlier actions
- May 23, 2025SenateRegular Message Sent To House
- May 22, 2025SenatePassed 3rd Reading
- May 22, 2025SenatePassed 2nd Reading
- May 21, 2025SenateReptd Fav
- May 20, 2025SenateRe-ref Com On Rules and Operations of the Senate
- May 20, 2025SenateCom Substitute Adopted
- May 20, 2025SenateReptd Fav Com Substitute
- May 19, 2025SenateRe-ref to Pensions and Retirement and Aging. If fav, re-ref to Rules and Operations of the Senate
- May 19, 2025SenateWithdrawn From Com
- Apr 30, 2025SenateRef To Com On Rules and Operations of the Senate
- Apr 30, 2025SenatePassed 1st Reading
- Apr 30, 2025SenateRegular Message Received From House
- Apr 30, 2025HouseRegular Message Sent To Senate
- Apr 29, 2025HouseOrdered Engrossed
- Apr 29, 2025HousePassed 3rd Reading
- Apr 29, 2025HousePassed 2nd Reading
- Apr 29, 2025HouseAmend Adopted A1
- Apr 28, 2025HousePlaced On Cal For 04/29/2025
- Apr 28, 2025HouseCal Pursuant Rule 36(b)
- Apr 28, 2025HouseReptd Fav
- Apr 15, 2025HouseRe-ref Com On Rules, Calendar, and Operations of the House
- Apr 15, 2025HouseReptd Fav Com Sub 2
- Apr 9, 2025HouseRe-ref Com On Judiciary 1
- Apr 9, 2025HouseReptd Fav Com Substitute
- Mar 24, 2025HouseRef to the Com on Pensions and Retirement, if favorable, Judiciary 1, if favorable, Rules, Calendar, and Operations of the House
- Mar 24, 2025HousePassed 1st Reading
- Mar 20, 2025HouseIntroducedFiled
Version history
Only one version on file - nothing to compare yet. As later stages (committee substitute, engrossed, enrolled) are captured, the redline appears here.
View official text →Lobbying Activity
No state lobbying filings in our records match this bill. Federal lobbying reports (LDA) cover Congress, so they are not listed on state bills.
Full breakdown
Who this bill affects and the strongest case for and against it, written only from the bill’s own text.
Sponsors
Discoveries
Patterns POLISCOPE noticed across the record. These are observations to investigate, not conclusions.
Master Trust Consolidation
The legislation establishes a single master trust (the North Carolina Teachers' and State Employees' Benefit Trust) to hold assets across multiple distinct retirement and insurance plans while prohibiting commingling of funds between plans.
Connected Entities
Sources
www.ncleg.gov
Analysis Score
0–100- Significance85How much this matters to a regular citizen
- Controversy10Intensity of disagreement among stakeholders
- Entertainment5Compellingness for a non-policy-wonk reader
- Buzz20Current news / social attention level
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