Employees Retirement System of Texas (ERS) vs AT&T Pension Benefit Plan
Side-by-side pension health comparison from DOL and public plan data
Employees Retirement System of Texas (ERS) and AT&T Pension Benefit Plan are meaningfully apart on the LakeQuality pension-health rubric: Employees Retirement System of Texas (ERS) grades B while AT&T Pension Benefit Plan grades A. Funding ratios: 70% vs 94%.
AT&T Pension Benefit 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
AT&T Pension Benefit Plan has a stronger Pension Health Score of 97/100 (A) compared to Employees Retirement System of Texas (ERS) at 66/100 (B). Funding ratios differ by 23.6 percentage points (93.7% vs 70.1%). AT&T Pension Benefit Plan covers 286,355 participants.
| Metric | Employees Retirement System of Texas (ERS) | AT&T Pension Benefit Plan |
|---|---|---|
| Health Score Composite of funding ratio, trend, and PBGC risk | 66/100 (B) | 97/100 (A)* |
| Funding Ratio Assets as % of liabilities (100%+ is fully funded) | 70.1% | 93.7%* |
| Total Assets | $31.5B | $30.0B |
| Total Liabilities | $44.9B | $32.0B* |
| Unfunded Liability | $13.4B | $2.0B* |
| Participants | 327,000 | 286,355 |
| 1-Year Investment Return | 5.5% | 6.9%* |
| Plan Type | public | corporate |
| PBGC Risk Level | moderate | low |
| Sponsor | State of Texas | AT&T Inc. |
AT&T Pension Benefit Plan has a stronger Pension Health Score of 97/100 (A) compared to Employees Retirement System of Texas (ERS) at 66/100 (B). Funding ratios differ by 23.6 percentage points (93.7% vs 70.1%). AT&T Pension Benefit Plan covers 286,355 participants.