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Action required: Review R.S. 11:157 membership-termination affidavits submitted on or after June 15, 2026
Act 922 of the 2026 Regular Session added a new requirement for R.S. 11:157 membership-termination affidavits effective June 15, 2026. Because the new requirement became effective immediately upon enactment, some municipalities may have continued using the prior MPERS form in good faith before receiving notice of the revised form.
Please review every R.S. 11:157 membership-termination affidavit your municipality submitted on or after June 15, 2026. Under Act 922, a police employee's membership-termination affidavit is not effective unless it bears the notarized signature of the chief of police or mayor of the employing municipality. This requirement applies even if the affidavit was submitted on the prior version of the MPERS form.
What your municipality needs to do
If an affidavit submitted on or after June 15, 2026, does not bear the notarized signature of the chief of police or mayor:
- the affidavit is not effective;
- the employee did not terminate MPERS membership;
- the employee remains an MPERS member; and
- the municipality owes all employee and employer contributions accruing from the date the employee first became eligible for membership.
Those contributions continue to accrue.
Please contact the MPERS office promptly regarding any affected employee. In recognition that some municipalities may have used the prior affidavit form in good faith before receiving notice of the new statutory requirement, MPERS will work with employers to allow a reasonable opportunity to obtain the required notarized signature, where permitted. If the deficiency cannot be cured, MPERS will determine the employee's membership status and any contributions that remain due.
This is not a paperwork technicality
An employee whose affidavit is ineffective or not received remains an MPERS member. If the municipality nevertheless treats the employee as a nonmember by failing to complete enrollment and remit contributions, the employee's disability protection and the family's survivor protection may be delayed or disputed. The municipality will also remain responsible for all contributions, including those that would have been withheld from its employee and remitted to MPERS.
If an officer is killed in the line of duty under those circumstances, the officer's surviving spouse and children could face a delay or dispute involving substantial survivor benefits.
A one-time legislative measure provides relief for certain survivors of officers killed in the line of duty on or after July 1, 2010, and before March 1, 2026, when the employer failed to enroll the officer. MPERS has already paid benefits to one family under that measure and is processing claims from four additional families of officers killed in the line of duty.
That relief does not apply to officers killed on or after March 1, 2026. Going forward, an officer's family depends on the employer properly enrolling every eligible officer and paying all required contributions.
The text of Act 922 is available at https://legis.la.gov/legis/ViewDocument.aspx?d=1481830.
Revised affidavit effective July 15, 2026
MPERS revised its R.S. 11:157 Membership-Termination Affidavit effective July 15, 2026. Previous versions will not be accepted for an employee who first becomes eligible for MPERS membership on or after that date.
Current forms are always available at https://lampers.org/forms.
What the revised membership-termination affidavit explains
MPERS membership is automatic and mandatory for an eligible police employee. The employer must enroll the employee, and the employee remains enrolled unless and until the employee properly terminates membership under R.S. 11:157.
An R.S. 11:157 membership-termination affidavit does not prevent membership from arising. It terminates a membership that already exists.
By terminating membership, the employee gives up MPERS retirement, disability, and survivor benefits and cannot rejoin MPERS while employed by a municipality whose police employees are covered by Social Security.
The revised affidavit adds acknowledgments so that employees understand these consequences before signing. It also requires the spouse of a married employee to acknowledge the termination, in recognition of the family's interest in these highly valuable benefits.
Important reminders
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Only employees of municipalities whose police employees are covered by Social Security may terminate MPERS membership under R.S. 11:157. A list of applicable municipalities is available here.
- An employee cannot terminate membership until the employee has completed the full MPERS enrollment process.
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MPERS must receive the complete enrollment package—every required document, fully and properly completed—within 30 days after the employee first becomes eligible for membership. The required documents are listed on the enrollment checklist available here.
- An incomplete, unsigned, illegible, or late submission will not be accepted, and the employee's membership will not be terminated.
- Use the revised membership-termination affidavit for every eligible employee who first becomes eligible for MPERS membership on or after July 15, 2026.
Why this matters
MPERS membership carries valuable retirement, disability, and survivor protections. For a qualifying member, those protections can include a lifetime retirement benefit, disability benefits for qualifying duty-related or non-duty-related disabilities, and survivor benefits for a spouse and children. Comparable protection would be very costly to replace privately.
An employee who terminates membership cannot rejoin MPERS while employed by the same employer or by another employer whose employees are covered by Social Security. The employee also cannot later purchase service credit for the period during which the employee elected not to participate. The decision therefore has lasting financial consequences for the employee and the employee's family.
The affidavit requirements help ensure that an employee makes that decision knowingly, freely, and voluntarily—with a full understanding of the protections being surrendered and without improper pressure. We appreciate your help in getting it right.
Please contact the MPERS office with any questions about enrollment or the affidavit requirements.
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