The initial training requirements went into effect on January 1, 2015.
The board adopted the rule changes at the September 25, 2024 board meeting. The rules became effective on October 15, 2024, but the changes regarding the MET cycle for first year of service and continuing education (CE) do not take effect until January 1, 2025.
Trustees and administrators may receive credit towards their required training hours through the PRB’s free, online training or through another accredited training provider. A list of training providers approved for core and continuing education (CE) credit can be found on the PRB website under Education (MET Program). The PRB’s free MET training can be found at https://education.prb.texas.gov/.
When trustees or administrators take courses by a non-accredited training provider, the courses may be accepted toward their MET requirements if they submit an Individual Course Approval Application (ICAA) and it is approved by the PRB. The training provider or the retirement system may submit an ICAA. The ICAA form can be found on the PRB website.
Accredited training providers do not have to apply for approval for each individual course they offer. This path is designed to meet the needs of frequent educational providers. Training providers who do not wish to become accredited or who offer fewer or less frequent courses must apply for approval of each individual course they would like to offer. Please see the training provider webpage for more information.
As of January 1, 2025, all training cycles correspond to the calendar year.
For a trustee or administrator’s first year of service, if the trustee or administrator begins before September 1, they have the current calendar year to complete the core training requirement. If the first year of service begins on or after September 1, they have the following calendar year to complete the core training requirement.
After the first year of service, all continuing education must be completed in a single calendar year, with two credit hours required each year.
40 T.A.C. Section 607.110(b) creates an application process for a one-time, three-month extension to complete core training, in exceptional circumstances. The request for extension must be approved by the chair of the PRS’ board, or, for an extension request by the PRS board chair, approved by the vice chair of the PRS’ board or its administrator. PRB rules require that the form include an explanation as to why the extension is needed by the applicant. Please submit a request using the First Year of Service Training Extension Form.
In a new trustee or administrator’s first year of service, also referred to as their core cycle, they must take seven hours of training from the core topic areas, which include: Fiduciary Matters, Governance, Ethics, Investments, Actuarial Matters, Benefits Administration, and Risk Management. In their subsequent training cycles, all trustees and administrators must complete the required two hours during every calendar year in either the core or continuing education content areas, the latter of which include: Compliance, Legal and Regulatory Matters, Pension Accounting, Custodial Issues, Plan Administration, Texas Open Meetings Act, and Texas Public Information Act. The Curriculum Guide for the Minimum Educational Training Program provides more guidance on what may be covered under each topic area.
Core courses cover the seven core topics required for a trustee’s core cycle and include Fiduciary Matters, Governance, Ethics, Investments, Actuarial Matters, Benefits Administration, and Risk Management. These seven core courses must be taken within a trustee’s first year of joining the board. Core courses may also be used to satisfy a trustee or administrator’s CE requirements. Continuing education courses may only be used to satisfy CE cycle requirements. These CE topics are Compliance, Legal and Regulatory Matters, Pension Accounting, Custodial Issues, Plan Administration, the Texas Open Meetings Act, and the Texas Public Information Act.
Yes, trustees and administrators are required to complete two hours of CE every calendar year after their first year of service training cycle, according to 40 T.A.C. Section 607.110(c).
Yes, trustees and administrators can earn credit hours for teaching an accredited MET activity. Credit hours must be based on actual instruction time, and additional credit may not be earned for repeated presentations of the same activity in a single calendar year.
No, the rules prohibit carrying over hours completed in excess of the annual requirement to a future training cycle.
Yes, the PRB and some accredited training providers offer online training for MET credit. Online training from non-accredited training providers may also be accepted along with the approval of an Individual Course Approval Application (ICAA).
Systems must report trustees’ and system administrators’ training hours by submitting a PRB-2000 by April 1st each year for training completed during the preceding calendar year, as well as any previously unreported training.
Yes, the PRB-2000 must include every course taken by the trustee or administrator at the conference as well as the topic area, credit hours, location, date, and instructor of the course. We require that the PRB-2000 be filled out in its entirety. A PRB-2000 may be sent back to the system for review if information is missing.
Yes, a PRB-2000 must be sent to the PRB for the MET courses to be counted toward an administrator’s or trustee’s MET requirements. The PRB does not require that certificates be sent to the agency.
No. System administrators currently cannot view a trustee’s progress on the PRB’s MET courses through the online website. However, individual trustees may view their individual data, including course completion certificates, on their online dashboard located on the course website.
A public retirement system may request an MET Compliance Report by emailing the agency at [email protected]. This report includes the administrator’s and all trustees’ current cycles, the cycles’ beginning and end dates, administrator and trustees’ compliance status for the cycle, and any other comments regarding MET compliance. If a trustee or administrator is not compliant for any past cycles, that information will be shown on the report as well.
Systems providing in-house training can either apply to become an accredited training provider or can submit individual course offerings through an Individual Course Approval Application (ICAA) to the PRB for approval. Please visit the training provider webpage for more information.
A trustee or system administrator who serves multiple systems only needs to be included on one PRB-2000. Training reported on that PRB-2000 will be used to make the trustee or administrator compliant for all the boards they are on. Please indicate the other boards or systems the trustee or administrator is part of on the PRB-150.
Yes, any changes to a public retirement system’s board must be sent to the PRB within 30 days of the change through a PRB-150 form. Trustees or administrators leaving and joining the board must be listed on the PRB-150 with all information filled out. You can find the PRB-150 form on the PRB website under Plan Reporting and Compliance. If the trustee or administrator serves on multiple boards, please use the required field on the PRB-150 to let the agency know.
Returning trustees or administrators are only required to repeat their core cycle if it has been more than five years since their previous term. If trustees or administrators return within five years of their previous term, they will begin a new CE cycle and they will not have to redo their core cycle.
The MET rules do not make any exceptions from the program requirements for trustees or administrators with various professional credentials. Some courses provided for continuing education requirements for other certifications may be eligible for MET credit. Both training providers and participants can use the Individual Course Approval Application to seek approval to earn MET credit for such courses.
Systems may apply for an exemption from the system administrator training requirement if the system has designated an outside entity (defined as a bank or financial institution) as the system administrator or if the system does not have an administrator that meets the statutory definition and affirms that a trustee(s) performs this role and will be subject to the training. In both cases, a Certification Letter of Exemption of Certain System Administrators must be submitted to the PRB.
No. All core requirements must be completed before any CE credit may be earned to satisfy future CE requirements. Completed courses also cannot be used toward future cycles that have not yet begun. Completed courses may only be used to satisfy the requirements of a current or previous cycle.
A system that is an accredited training provider may offer training to trustees and administrators from other systems for credit hours. The accredited training provider is responsible for all of the same statutory requirements as any other accredited training provider if the course is not solely for the system training provider’s own trustees and administrator.
The PRB is always open to receiving training provider applications.
The rules for training providers are located in 40 T.A.C Subchapter C.
An accredited training provider will need to reapply for accreditation two years after the initial accreditation. After the initial two years, the training provider will need to reapply for accreditation every four years.
No, all training records do not have to be submitted to the PRB, however; all accredited training providers must keep records for five years following the completion of the course. The PRB can request the records at any time. These records must include the following information: an agenda or outline that describes the course content; the name and title of the instructor(s) for each topic area; time devoted to each topic; each date and location of presentation; a record of participation that reflects the credit hours earned by the trustees or administrator and the number of non-trustee/non-administrator attendees; and evaluations completed by participants. Core accredited training providers that are not a public retirement system must submit participation information to both the PRB and the appropriate public retirement system within 30 days of providing training to fulfill the first year of service training requirement.
System training providers that provide in-house training to their own trustees and administrators are exempt from the following requirements for training providers:
The PRB is accepting applications and will process them as received. If further documentation is required, the applicant will be notified as soon as possible.
