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.

For institutional investors, ESG-related initiatives are ultimately about managing risk. As noted by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), a poor environmental record may make a firm vulnerable to legal or regulatory fines/sanctions; socially, the mistreatment of workers and dissatisfied employees may lead to higher absenteeism, lower productivity, and weaker client servicing/relationships; and weak corporate governance may incentivize and/or enable unethical behaviors related to pay, accounting irregularities, and even fraud.¹ For all these reasons and more, identifying and addressing material ESG-related issues germane to a corporation is a quintessential exercise in risk management – for the management of that company, for investment managers thinking about holding that security in their investment portfolio, and for asset owners concerned whether the manager is acting in accordance with fund policies.

About a half a year has passed since we last updated you with our take on the bond market. Since then, the Federal Reserve has tilted even more hawkishly with 75bp rate increases in their attempt to combat inflation. Unfortunately, they have not made much headway, as August CPI data registered a gain of 8.3% year-over-year, with Ex Food and Energy CPI at 6.3%, both ahead of economists’ and market expectations. These high numbers are not what Fed Governors or the markets were hoping to see as the immediate reaction from both bonds and stocks was a quick sell-off. Making matters even more difficult is the reality that the “sticky” components of inflation, such as rent, posted its largest monthly increase in this cycle since 1986. Inflation on services also touched a new high, as medical care and transportation services helped drive gains. If not for drops in gasoline and other commodities, the latest inflation report would have been even hotter. We believe another 75bps rate increase is all but certain when the Fed meets later in September. While consensus is growing for an additional 75bps in November and a higher terminal rate in our intermediate future, the question becomes whether or not this scenario is fully accounted for in current prices.

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. 

There are 1.07 million minority-owned firms in the United States with 9.3 million employees and $344.5 billion in annual payroll, according to the 2019 Annual Business Survey.

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.

As a Silver Sponsor of TEXPERS' 2022 Summer Educational Forum in El Paso, Texas, Oxford Funds, LLC will send Senior Portfolio Manager Deep Maji to present.

The first glimpses of global economic growth, inflation trends, and monetary policy meetings have kept financial and investment professionals busy this week. Some interesting retirement data is also set to be released soon. Online presentations offered by thought leaders from various firms in the financial, investment, banking, and research industries can provide your retirement funds insights to manage the pensions of your annuitants.Here are four webinars offering fresh insights into the latest economic market conditions and retirement research.

The Texas Pension Review Board committee creating rules for implementing House Bill 3898 accepted new, flexible proposals from the staff at its May meeting. The rules will be presented to the full Board on July 14 and the official public comment period will begin. Ultimate consideration of all comments and changes is planned for the October PRB meeting.

Wolf Popper LLP is a Silver Sponsor of TEXPERS' 2022 Summer Educational Forum Aug.21-23 in El Paso, Texas, and is sending securities and commercial litigation attorney Joshua Ruthizer as a presenter.

The Texas Pension Review Board is holding a board meeting at 10 a.m. CST on Thursday, July 14, 2022. The Board's Investment Committee will gather later that afternoon.

Amundi Asset Management is serving as a Gold Keynote Sponsor of TEXPERS' 2022 Summer Educational Forum to be held Aug. 21-23, 2022, in El Paso, Texas.

TerraCap Management is a Gold Keynote Sponsor of TEXPERS' 2022 Summer Educational Forum to be held Aug. 21-23, 2022, in El Paso, Texas, and is sending its founder, W. Stephen Hagenbuckle as a keynote speaker for the event’s opening session.

When it comes to tackling climate change, there is some consensus around what needs to be done—but solving for the how is much more complicated. In some ways, the urgency around this question has intensified amid the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. While extremely concerning from a humanitarian perspective, the conflict has also accelerated the thinking around energy security and energy independence.

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.

Below is a list of upcoming or recently held interim Texas legislative hearings TEXPERS' System Members and others interested in managing public employee pensions in the state might be interested in following. The topics either directly or indirectly impact pension management or governance issues.