Joe Newton hails from Wise County, Texas, northwest of Fort Worth, and is more of a mathematician than a physician when it comes to his work checking the health of the fund. But your pension fund's actuary spends a lot of his time poking and prodding your fund and examining its relative value. He wants to make sure it remains healthy for the long term – that today's member, state and employer contributions combined with annual investment returns meet carefully calculated assumptions around future benefit payments. Joe's diagnoses also track changes over time and, like your own doctor, warns of any future issues.
Joe works for a company called GRS. His report for the 2023 fiscal year that ended Aug. 31 found that your pension fund has remained healthy, or actuarially sound. That means the Texas Legislature may consider future benefit enhancements – like the benefit enhancements that were issued to eligible retirees earlier this year after recent lawmaker and voter approval. That's because your pension fund has a funding period of less than 31 years. As of last August, it was 29 years.
To learn more about how the TRS pension trust fund functions to remain healthy, please watch our video series titled “Understanding Your Pension Fund."