S.C. Code Ann. § 9-1-1660

(A) The person nominated by a member to receive the full amount of the member's accumulated contributions if the member dies before retirement may, if the member: (1) has five or more years of earned service or eight or more years of such service for a Class Three member; (2) dies while in service; and (3) has either attained the age of sixty years or has accumulated fifteen years or more of creditable service, elect to receive in lieu of the accumulated contributions an allowance for life in the same amount as if the deceased member had retired at the time of the member's death and had named the person as beneficiary under an election of Option B of Section 9-1-1620(A). For purposes of the benefit calculation, a member who is not yet eligible for service retirement is assumed to be sixty years of age. (B) A person otherwise eligible under subsection (A) of this section to elect to receive an allowance but who has received a refund of the member's accumulated contributions under Section 9-1-1650, upon repayment of the refund to the system in a single sum, may make the election provided for in subsection (A). The monthly payments under Option B to the person date from the time of the repayment of the accumulated contributions to the system. (C) Regardless of whether a member is in service, if a member dies before retirement and, at the time of the member's death, was eligible to receive a service retirement allowance pursuant to Section 9-1-1510 or Section 9-1-1515, the person nominated by a member to receive the full amount of the member's accumulated contributions if the member dies before retirement may elect to receive, in lieu of the accumulated contributions, an allowance for life in the same amount as if the deceased member had retired at the time of the member's death and had named the person as beneficiary under an election of Option B of Section 9-1-1620(A). (D) If a member has designated more than one beneficiary for the receipt of the member's accumulated contributions if the member dies before retirement, and if those beneficiaries become eligible to elect an allowance pursuant to this section upon the member's death, all of the beneficiaries must elect the allowance in order for the allowance to become payable in lieu of the return of accumulated contributions.