Thompson

I. BACKGROUND

Beginning in 1994, the decedent worked for the Department of Parks and Recreation, which is a part of CalPERS. In 2010, she and Starr entered a domestic partnership. A. The Decedent’s CalPERS Retirement Benefits CalPERS is a unit of the Government Operations Agency responsible for administering the retirement systems for the State of California. (See §§ 20001, 20002, 20004, 20028.) “Members of CalPERS, once vested, participate in a defined benefit retirement plan, which supplies a monthly retirement allowance under a formula comprising factors such as final compensation, service credit (i.e., the credited years of employment), and a per-service-year multiplier.” (In re Marriage of Sonne (2010) 48 Cal.4th 118, 121.) At the time of retirement, a CalPERS member may either elect an unmodified retirement allowance, under which the retiree will receive the full amount of the monthly retirement allowance, “or select from a group of options under which the retiree’s monthly retirement allowance payments are reduced so that a selected beneficiary may receive ‘survivor benefit’ payments after the retiree’s death, if the beneficiary survives the retiree.” (In re Marriage of…