As conference attendees, finding a convenient and comfortable place to stay can be difficult. Staying at the on-site hotel of a conference venue is more convenient than staying off-site. 

Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan announced committee assignments on Feb. 8, naming Rep. Giovanni Capriglione, R-Keller, chair of the Committee on Pensions, Investments & Financial Services.

The Pension Review Board recently launched a new Minimum Educational Training website, according to a memo the state agency distributed to Texas public pension trustees and administrators on Jan. 9. 

UPDATE 1/10/23 - Texas' 88th legislative session adjourned on Jan. 10 after completing opening ceremonies during which Gov. Greg Abbott congratulated newly elected and re-elected members of the House and Senate as well as Rep. Dade Phelan, R-Beaumont, who was reelected today as House Speaker for the session.

People 65 and older experienced an increase in poverty in 2021, according to the official poverty measure from the U.S. Census Bureau. The Bureau recently highlighted data from its Poverty in the United States: 2021 report originally released in September 2022 as the nation prepares to observe Poverty Awareness Month in the United States this January 2023.

Legislation that includes retirement provisions affecting public safety employees and state and local government retirement plans is nearing passage on Capitol Hill as part of an end-of-year omnibus spending bill. 

At 10 a.m. CST on Thursday, Dec. 8, the Texas Pension Review Board will meet to review the actuarial soundness and compliance of state and local government public retirement systems. Those interested in managing public employee pension systems may attend in person or via videoconference. 

The Texas Pension Review Board meets at 10 a.m. CT on Thursday, Oct. 6, 2022, in Austin at the Capitol Extension, Room E2.028, located at 1100 Congress Avenue. 

In striving to seek and secure the best investments and services for their membership, public retirement system administrators and staff often look for demographic and economic data to highlight in various reports. 

There's a lot of research out there, especially regarding retirement, pensions, and investment management. And it seems everyone conducts and publishes it in some form - books, briefs, multi-page reports.

TEXPERS has a section on its website where it publishes requests for proposals, those public documents that announce a project and invite proposals from service providers. 

Administrators and trustees of public retirement systems must act in the best interests of their beneficiaries, exercise good faith in their duties, seek professional services, and supervise those to whom functions are assigned. To put it simply - you're a leader. 

Hispanic Heritage Month in the United States runs from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15, celebrating the histories, cultures, and contributions of Hispanic citizens in the country. 

In its latest meeting, the Texas Pension Review Board's Investment Committee made it clear that it intends to request pension funds to report on how their investment portfolios are structured to meet real-time expectations for outflow benefit payments to retirees. 

This report, compiled by TEXPERS legislative consultants and staff in attendance, is intended to give you an overview and highlight the discussions on the various topics taken up. It is not a verbatim transcript of the discussions but based on what was audible or understandable to the observer and the desire to get details out as quickly as possible with few errors or omissions.

Napier Park Global is a Silver Sponsor of TEXPERS' 2022 Summer Educational Forum Aug. 21-23 in El Paso, Texas, and is sending Amit Sanghani, managing director and product specialist for the firm's global credit and real asset strategies.

Emerging markets endured a challenging 2021, dragged down mostly by China and South Korea, which represent close to half the index. But the developing world is diverse, and many individual countries did well. We expect improvement on several fronts in 2022, and the outperformance of EM over developed markets in January—despite turbulent market performance—is also encouraging.

The impact of inflation on defined benefit pension plan liabilities might surprise you. For private plans, the news is mostly good. For public plans, it is more challenging and provides a good reminder that public plan sponsors need to keep making their full pension contributions even if times are difficult.

The Texas Association of Public Employee Retirement Systems held its 2022 Annual Conference at The Worthington Renaissance Hotel in Fort Worth, Texas, April 3-6, 2022.

The following list is a compilation of the upcoming interim legislative hearings that might interest TEXPERS' System Members. Hearing dates and times are subject to change. Please note that additional hearings dates may also be added at any time. Items directly impacting pensions are highlighted in yellow.