The 83rd Texas Legislature required the Pension Review Board (PRB) to establish a Minimum Educational Training (MET) Program for trustees and system administrators of Texas public retirement systems, including providing online training.
The program statute, rules, forms, and flowcharts can be found below.
The MET requirements include topic areas called core and non-core. The core is designed to cover the fundamental competencies of public pensions necessary for trustees and system administrators to successfully discharge their duties. The non-core includes topics that go beyond the basics and are designed to allow trustees and administrators to gain further expertise in additional areas related to their duties. The training requirements are summarized in the table below and are explained in detail in the sections that follow.
Minimum Training Requirements for New Trustees and Administrators Core:
All trustees and administrators shall complete at least 7 credit hours of training in the core content areas within their first year of service. The 7 hours must include training in all of the 7 content areas. No less than half a credit hour and no more than 2 credit hours earned in any one core content area can be applied toward meeting the 7-hour minimum requirement.
Core content areas: Fiduciary Matters, Governance, Ethics, Investments, Actuarial Matters, Benefits Administration, and Risk Management.
Continuing Education: A trustee and an administrator shall complete at least 4 credit hours of continuing education in either the core or non-core content areas within each two-year period after the first year of service.
Non-core content areas: Compliance, Legal and Regulatory Matters, Pension Accounting, Custodial Issues, Plan Administration, Texas Open Meetings Act, and Texas Public Information Act.
Approved Training: Trustees and administrators may obtain training credit hours through either an accredited sponsor or with individual course approval. Accredited sponsors do not have to apply to the PRB for approval of each course and systems do not need to fill out an application prior to attending a training conducted by an accredited sponsor unless the training is in a subject area the sponsor is not accredited. In addition to accredited sponsors, systems may also submit an Individual Course Approval Application (ICAA) for any classes the trustees or administrator would like to take from an unaccredited sponsor. The ICAA should be submitted to the PRB 30 days before the course is to be held; however, the Board may make exceptions on a case-by-case basis. Public retirement systems may apply to become an accredited sponsor, using the Sponsor Accreditation Application (SAA), to be able to get credit for in-house training, often provided by staff or outside consultants at board meetings. Systems may also apply to offer individual courses using the ICAA. Please contact the PRB through our Contact Page or by calling (512) 463-1736, with any questions about particular sponsors or courses.
Educational providers who would like to apply to become accredited sponsors or for individual course approval should visit the sponsor webpage for more information.
