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PensionRisk

Caterpillar Inc. Retirement Income Plan vs Houston Municipal Employees Pension System

Side-by-side pension health comparison from DOL and public plan data

Caterpillar Inc. Retirement Income Plan and Houston Municipal Employees Pension System are meaningfully apart on the LakeQuality pension-health rubric: Caterpillar Inc. Retirement Income Plan grades A while Houston Municipal Employees Pension System grades C. Funding ratios: 106% vs 58%.

Caterpillar Inc. Retirement Income Plan comes out ahead on the composite rubric. For a participant in either plan, the spread is informative but not directly actionable — pension participation is not portable, so the relevant question is what each plan's funded-status trajectory means for that participant's benefit security.

Verdict

Caterpillar Inc. Retirement Income Plan has a stronger Pension Health Score of 100/100 (A) compared to Houston Municipal Employees Pension System at 55/100 (C). Funding ratios differ by 48.0 percentage points (106.2% vs 58.2%). Caterpillar Inc. Retirement Income Plan covers 39,566 participants.

MetricCaterpillar Inc. Retirement Income PlanHouston Municipal Employees Pension System
Health Score
Composite of funding ratio, trend, and PBGC risk
100/100 (A)*55/100 (C)
Funding Ratio
Assets as % of liabilities (100%+ is fully funded)
106.2%*58.2%
Total Assets$9.8B$4.5B
Total Liabilities$9.2B$7.7B*
Unfunded Liability$0*$3.2B
Participants39,56628,000
1-Year Investment Return6.7%*5.1%
Plan Typecorporatepublic
PBGC Risk Levellowhigh
SponsorCaterpillar Inc.City of Houston

Caterpillar Inc. Retirement Income Plan has a stronger Pension Health Score of 100/100 (A) compared to Houston Municipal Employees Pension System at 55/100 (C). Funding ratios differ by 48.0 percentage points (106.2% vs 58.2%). Caterpillar Inc. Retirement Income Plan covers 39,566 participants.

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