§ 42. Individual Accounts of Firefighters.

Individual Accounts shall be established for every (a) Firefighter of Regular Status at the effective date of this Act, (b) Firefighter who has been retired under any City pension plan since the adoption of Chapter 19112, Acts of Florida, 1939, or (c) Firefighter who attains Regular Status subsequent to the adoption of this Act. To each Account there shall be credited, as of the date of each payment to the Fund by the State, an amount of such payment which bears the same ratio thereto that the years of Service of each Participant bears to the years of Service of all Participants. After adjustments by the proration of the costs of previous court action, and preliminary expense, this method of crediting Accounts of individuals Participants shall be applied to the present accumulated moneys as of the date of each payment thereof; and to all subsequent payments to the Fund by the State after proper provisions have been made for the payment of administrative expenses for the ensuing year. There shall be an annual determination of interest earned by the investments of the Fund, and such interest earnings shall be prorated to each of the Accounts of the Participants in the same proportion as the invested funds of the Account of each Participant bears to the total funds invested on behalf of the Fund. As of each Valuation Date there shall be allocated and credited to the Accounts of Participants who are Firefighters of Regular Status as of such date, their share of nonvested forfeitures of terminated Participants arising during the prior twelve months, to be made in the same proportion as is the case above with regard to payments by the State.

The Board shall value the Fund's assets as of each Valuation Date and shall allocate to the Account of each Participant his or her share of the increase or decrease in the fair market value of the Fund's assets.

Except as set forth in this Section 42 and Section 43(d), no further credits shall be made to a Participant's Account after he or she shall have retired under any other pension plan of the City or after he or she shall have separated from service with the City or otherwise ceased to be a Participant in the Fund. However, until completely distributed to him, a Participant's Account shall continue to be invested as part of the Fund and shall continue to share in the investment gains and losses of the Fund in accordance with this Section 42. A Participant shall continue to receive allocations of contributions and forfeitures after he ceases to be on Regular Status if such contributions and forfeitures are attributable to a period when he was on Regular Status. Each Participant shall remain a Participant in the Fund until his or her Account has been fully distributed.

Notwithstanding any provision of this Act to the contrary, the maximum amount allocated to the Participant's Account for any calendar year under this Act shall not exceed the limitations set forth in Section 415 of the Code, as applicable, and any regulations issued thereunder. For purposes of Section 415 of the Code, the Limitation Year shall be the same as the Fund Year and, effective for Limitation Years beginning on or after July 1, 2007. Compensation shall have the same meaning as provided in Treasury Regulations section 1.415-(c)-2, including that, effective for plan years beginning on or after July 1, 2001. Compensation shall include amounts which would have been included in a Participant's gross income but for an election under Section 132(f)(4) of the Code.

(Laws of Fla., 1949, ch. 26024, § 7; Laws of Fla., 1953, ch. 29286, § 1; election of 5-24-66; election of 11-2-82; Ord. No. 2015-3945, § 7, 6-10-15; Ord. No. 2018-4193, § 7, 5-16-18)