N.Y. Comp. Codes R. & Regs. tit. 2 § 152.9

Current through Register Vol. 46, No. 50, December 11, 2024

Section 152.9 - Sponsor contributions

(a) Within 45 days of receiving from the administrator a copy of the certified list in accordance with section 152.7 of this Part, the program actuary shall calculate and the administrator shall bill the sponsor for the contribution due for the calendar year ended on the immediately preceding December 31st. In addition to the program administration costs for such year, such contribution shall include the actuarially determined normal cost plus any prior service costs associated with the adoption of a program, including the conversion from a defined contribution plan service award program to a defined benefit plan program, or the adoption of an amendment to an existing program. For good cause shown, the program actuary may recalculate the contribution, and, in such a case, the administrator shall issue a corrected bill.

(b) Within 60 days of the invoice date of a bill for sponsor contributions, the sponsor shall pay to the administrator the total amount of the sponsor contribution shown on such invoice.

(c) The actuarial methodology and assumptions used by the program actuary to calculate such annual contribution shall be the same for all defined benefit plan service award programs.

(d) The actuarial methodology and assumptions used by the program actuary to calculate such annual contribution shall be reviewed beginning with the calendar year 2000 sponsor contribution and for every third program (calendar) year thereafter by an independent enrolled actuary selected and retained by the program actuary subject to approval by the Comptroller. Such enrolled actuary shall submit a written report to the program actuary and the Comptroller regarding the appropriateness of the actuarial methodology and assumptions used by the program actuary in the calculation of the program costs and the funded status of the existing defined benefit plan program as a whole. In addition, the enrolled actuary, on a statistical random sampling basis of sufficient size, shall select a number of specific programs to audit for completeness and correctness of participant data, consistency of actuarial cost calculations with program provisions and correctness of actuarial calculations.

(e) Interest shall accrue and be paid by the sponsor on all contributions due during a calendar year but not received by the administrator within 60 days of the invoice date or the billing statement from the administrator to the sponsor for the amount of annual contribution owed. The interest rate or rates used to calculate such interest shall be the greater of:

(1) the investment return rate (or rates) assumed by the program actuary in the calculation of the normal cost component of such unpaid contribution; or

(2) the actual investment return rate earned by the volunteer ambulance workers' defined benefit plan service award program trust fund during the calendar year (or years) in which such unpaid contributions were due to be paid.

(f) The administrator shall notify the Comptroller of any outstanding unpaid contributions after the end of a calendar year during which payment of contributions should have been received by the administrator.

(g) In the event that a sponsor does not submit to the administrator the certified list (with supporting documentation) in accordance with section 152.7 of this Part, the administrator shall bill the sponsor for the contribution due during the calendar year in which the list should have been submitted in an amount calculated by the program actuary equal to the estimated contribution due during such year. Such estimated contribution shall be calculated by the program actuary as if all volunteer ambulance workers on the latest year's certified list received by the administrator continued to be volunteer ambulance workers and all such persons earned year of service credit during the calendar year or years for which the list or lists should have been prepared in accordance with section 152.7 of this Part. Payment of such contribution shall be made in accordance with subdivisions (b) and (e) of this section as if the program actuary's cost calculations were based upon the actual certified listings prepared in accordance with section 152.7 of this Part. Upon receipt by the administrator of the actual certified list prepared in accordance with section 152.7 of this Part, the program actuary shall calculate the actual amount of contributions due for such calendar year. In the event that additional contributions are owed by the sponsor (including any additional administration costs), the administrator shall bill the sponsor for such additional amounts. Interest shall be paid by the sponsor on all additional amounts owed and shall accrue from the due date of the payment of the estimated contribution billed to the sponsor by the administrator with such interest calculated in accordance with subdivision (e) of this section. Any excess of the estimated contributions over the actual contributions shall be refunded to the sponsor. The amount of such refund shall be reduced by any related additional administration costs charged by the administrator or the program actuary. The assessment of any extra additional administration charges payable by the sponsor to either the administrator or the program actuary because of the failure to comply with section 152.7 of this Part shall be in accordance with the contract(s) between the Comptroller and the administrator/program actuary.

(h) In the event that two years have elapsed since an inactive volunteer ambulance worker participant or a participant's designated beneficiary becomes eligible to apply for a service award and the administrator does not receive an application for distribution, the administrator, the sponsor and the ambulance company in which the participant was a member shall attempt to notify the person or persons to whom the service award would be paid. In the event that the administrator, in his sole discretion, determines that a reasonable attempt has been made to contact such person or persons without success, the service award payable shall then be considered as forfeited for the purpose of determining future contributions payable by the sponsor. Such forfeiture shall be treated by the program actuary as an actuarial gain in the program cost calculations in the same manner as any other forfeiture of a service award. The funds accumulated to pay the participant or the participant's beneficiary shall remain within the service award program trust fund as if such funds were the accumulated funds associated with the forfeiture of a non-vested service award. Should the person to whom service award payments are owed subsequently file an application for payment with the administrator, the administrator shall determine and pay the amount of the service award owed to the person and the actuarial liability for such payments shall be included in subsequent actuarial calculations of the sponsor's funding costs of the program by the program actuary.

N.Y. Comp. Codes R. & Regs. Tit. 2 § 152.9