Alaska National Guard and Naval Militia Retirement System

Alaska runs a state retirement system for its own Guard and Naval Militia members, the National Guard and Naval Militia Retirement System, under AS 26.05.222 through 26.05.229. Very few states operate anything comparable. The benefit is one hundred dollars a month, payable for the same number of months the member participated satisfactorily in the Alaska National Guard or the Alaska Naval Militia. It is a count of Alaska service months rather than a percentage of pay, so a member with twelve years of satisfactory Alaska service has 144 months and a benefit payable for 144 months. Eligibility asks for twenty years and five years at the same time. The member must have at least twenty years of combined service, counting Alaska Guard service, Guard service in another state, active federal service and reserve service, of which at least five years must have been satisfactory service in a branch of the Alaska Guard. An involuntary discharge from the Alaska Guard for reasons other than misconduct waives those requirements. Payment is flexible in a way federal reserve retirement is not. The accrued benefit may be taken as a monthly payment, as a lump sum, or on an accelerated schedule that pays it out by age seventy-two. A member weighing the options should note that the total is fixed at months multiplied by one hundred dollars, so accelerating it changes the timing rather than the amount. The death provisions are better than the size of the benefit suggests. If a member with at least five years of satisfactory Alaska Guard service dies on active duty, the full accrued benefit is payable in one lump sum to the beneficiary. If a member dies after payments have begun but before the benefit is exhausted, the remainder is paid to the beneficiary. The money is not forfeited on death, which is unlike most annuities. This is additive. It does not reduce, offset or interact with federal reserve retired pay under chapter 1223 of title 10, and a member who qualifies for both receives both. For a career Alaska guardsman it is a meaningful supplement to a federal reserve pension that does not begin until sixty. Applications go to the Alaska Division of Retirement and Benefits on form 02-1890.