The 83rd Texas Legislature required the Pension Review Board (PRB) to establish a Minimum Educational Training (MET) program for Texas public retirement system trustees and administrators, including providing online training.
The PRB provides seven core courses as well as several continuing education courses online at https://education.prb.texas.gov.
The program statute, rules, forms, and flowcharts can be found below.
The MET requirements include topic areas sorted by 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. Core courses are required to be completed in a trustee or administrator’s first year of service and can be retaken to be used toward their continuing education (CE) cycle.
The non-core courses include 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. Non-core courses can only be used toward a trustee or administrator’s CE cycle.
The training requirements are summarized in the table below and explain in detail in the following sections.
Required Hours and Frequency | |
| NEW trustees and administers (Core cycle) | • Minimum of seven hours of training within the first year of service. • The seven hours must include training in all the seven content areas listed below. No less than half a credit hour and no more than two credit hours may be earned in any one core content area. |
| CONTINUING trustees and administrators (CE cycle) | • Minimum of four hours of training every two years after the first year of service. • The four hours may be in core or non-core topics. |
Required Content Areas | |
Core Content (For both Core and CE cycles) | Fiduciary Matters, Governance, Ethics, Investments, Actuarial Matters, Benefits Administration, Risk Management |
Non-Core Content (Only for CE cycles) | Compliance, Legal and Regulatory Matters, Pension Accounting, Custodial Issues, Plan Administration, Texas Open Meetings Act, Texas Public Information Act |
Minimum Training Requirements for New Trustees and Administrators
Core: All trustees and administrators shall complete at least seven credit hours of training in the core content areas within their first year of service. The seven hours must include training in all seven content areas. No less than half a credit hour and no more than two credit hours earned in any one core content area can be applied toward meeting the seven-hour minimum requirement.
Core content areas: Fiduciary Matters, Governance, Ethics, Investments, Actuarial Matters, Benefits Administration, and Risk Management.
Continuing Education: Trustees and administrators shall complete at least four 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 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 submit an Individual Course Approval Application (ICAA) for any courses 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 PRB may make exceptions on a case-by-case basis. Public retirement systems may apply to become accredited sponsors using the Sponsor Accreditation Application (SAA), to be able to get credit for in-house training, often provided by staff or outside consultants at system 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.
