Webinars are one of the most effective tools for distance learning, allowing attendees to acquire knowledge without being bound by a specific location. |
Webinars are one of the most effective tools for distance learning, allowing attendees to acquire knowledge without being bound by a specific location. |
Rep. Dan Huberty, R-Houston, is retiring from the Texas House. |
HOUSTON and NEW YORK, Oct. 21, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Houston Firefighters' Relief and Retirement Fund (HFRRF), the pension fund for the City of Houston's firefighters, today announced that it had purchased bitcoin and ether for the defined benefit plan's portfolio. This investment marks the first announced investment in digital assets by a public pension plan in the U.S. and was facilitated exclusively by NYDIG, a leading bitcoin company. |
The state's 87th regular legislative session got underway on Jan. 4, 2021 and adjourned May 31, 2021. The governor called three special sessions. TEXPERS, along with the association's Legislative Committee and legislative consultant, is monitoring the sessions, especially for any actions regarding public employee pensions. TEXPERS staff will regularly update this blog page with the latest happenings that may be of interest to trustees and administrators of public employee retirement systems.
Michael J. Curran, a former member of TEXPERS' Board of Directors, died on Oct. 5. |
Even though the novel Coronavirus pandemic slowed down life for businesses in 2020, it did not deter the ambitions of cybercriminals. In fact, according to the FBI's 2020 Internet Crime Report, cybercriminals pretty much seized the pandemic as an opportunity to "profit from our dependence on technology to go on an internet crime spree." |
Question: What is a digital currency actually backed with as there are no assets within a digital currency?Answer: Cryptoassets are—to quote a recent Bank for International Settlements’ (BIS’) consultative document on the topic—“private digital assets that depend primarily on cryptography and distributed ledger or similar technology.” So the world’s central bankers agree they are assets. |
The issue of funding an increasing pension liability is a lingering concern for many trustees and state officials. As employee contribution rates continue to increase, discount rates are declining, and municipal contributions are under pressure due to competing priorities, many plans struggle to properly manage and continue to provide benefits to employees. |
Much ink has been spilled, much breath expended, and many hands have been wrung over the last decade on the lack of diversity in corporate boardrooms. That chorus only intensified over the last year as protests over racial inequity poured out into the streets of cities across the country. |
Recent economic reports have prompted fears that prices in the U.S. are about to take off. Concerns that pandemic-related supply bottlenecks, combined with increased consumer demand due to unprecedented fiscal and monetary stimulus, would lead to an undesirable jump in inflation seem to be, at least preliminarily, materializing. While increasing costs have been widespread, the greatest opportunity for sustained price increases lies in the labor market and the possibility of a wage-price spiral. |
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JOB ADVERTISEMENT: Our client, Austin Fire Fighters Relief & Retirement Fund (AFRS), a single employer defined benefit pension plan provides service retirement, death, disability and termination benefits for eligible members and their survivors, is seeking a Fund Administrator.
With material inflation returning for the first time in years, investors are tasked with defending their portfolios against its erosive effects. Often, this has been done via investment in real estate, long touted as an effective hedging strategy in periods of rising prices, though why this has persisted as part of the investing canon bears repeating given the current environment.
In a state very much open for business after a more than a year of social distancing during a pandemic, nearly 290 people headed "Back to the Future" to get some insight into how the pension management industry might look in a post-pandemic world during TEXPERS' 2021 Summer Educational Forum, Aug. 29-31, in San Antonio, Texas.
As the world starts to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, a range of factors are converging to create a new inflationary era. Crucially, the policy regime is changing, driven by the need to respond to emerging social and environmental challenges and help manage record peacetime debt levels. These developments reinforce longer-term structural changes that are ending the long period of disinflation that the developed world enjoyed from 1980 to 2020. Such secular trends include the reversal of positive demographics and the start of de-globalization. How did we get to this juncture? What can we learn from previous inflationary episodes? And what are the chances of a different outcome this time?
The rise of China’s digital champions has been an engine of innovation and growth and a compelling investment opportunity over the past years.
Part of the job of administrators and trustees of public employee retirement systems is to keep up with legislation that could impact the benefits of their fund's active and retired members. The Library of Congress will hold a public forum next month to update the public on the latest improvements to Congress.gov, the official source for federal legislative information.
The Texas Emergency Services Retirement System is seeking an experienced accounting professional to join the agency as Chief Financial Officer, according to a news release the TESRS submitted on July 27, 2021.
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"Back to the Future" is the theme of the Texas Association of Public Employee Retirement Systems' 2021 Summer Educational Forum, set for Aug. 29-31 in San Antonio, Texas. |
The state of Texas doesn't simply encourage professional development for public employee pension trustees and administrators; it mandates it.