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 here on the PRB website.
In a new trustee or administrator’s first year of service, they must take 7 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 years of service, all trustees and administrators can take their required 4 hours during every 2-year continuing education cycle in either the core areas or the non-core, 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.
Yes, online training from accredited sponsors, as well as approved online courses from non-accredited sponsors, will be accepted. The PRB offers Core Online Training. Successful completion of all 7 online modules satisfies the MET Core requirement.
The PRB 2000 form was developed for systems to report their trustees’ and administrator’s training hours. Systems must submit a PRB-2000 every September 1st for training completed August 1st of the previous year through July 31st.
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 Subchapter C of Title 40 of Chapter 607 of the Texas Administrative Code and can be found here.
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.
