Mississippi Administrative Code
Title 27 - Personnel
Part 210 - PERS, Regulations for Retirement Plans Administered by the Board of Trustees
Chapter 61 - Compliance with Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Requirements
Section 27-210-61-101 - Public Employees' Retirement System of Mississippi

1. The PERS Board shall hold the assets of the Public Employees' Retirement System of Mississippi (PERS) in trust for the exclusive purpose of providing benefits to participants and paying reasonable expenses of administration. The assets shall be maintained as a separate fund, separate from all other funds held by the PERS Board and shall be used only for the payment of benefits provided by Miss. Code Ann. § 25-11-1 et seq., (1972, as amended) or amendments thereto.

2. It shall be impossible by operation of PERS, by termination, by power of revocation or amendment, by the happening of any contingency, by collateral arrangement or by other means, for any part of the corpus or income of the trust, or any funds contributed thereto, to inure to the benefit of any employer or otherwise be used for or diverted to purposes other than providing benefits to participants and beneficiaries and defraying reasonable expenses of administering the system.

3. Benefits are provided in accordance with § 25-11-1 et seq. Forfeitures of accrued benefits resulting from members electing to receive refunds of employee contributions will not be applied to increase the benefits any member would otherwise receive under these provisions.

4. Benefits payable pursuant to Title 25, Chapter 11 of the Mississippi Code Annotated shall be made in compliance with the limitations set forth in Section 415 of the Internal Revenue Code and any regulations issued there under as applicable to governmental plans. Further, distributions made from PERS shall conform to a good faith interpretation of Section 401(a)(9) of the Internal Revenue Code.

5. Any member of PERS who became a member before July 1, 2007, who is not otherwise vested and who has at least four (4) years of membership service credit will be fully vested in his or her accrued benefit on attaining age 60. Any member of PERS who became a member on or after July 1, 2007, who is not otherwise vested and who has at least eight (8) years of membership service credit will be fully vested in his or her accrued benefit on attaining age 60.