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PensionRisk

Texas Municipal Retirement System (TMRS) vs Houston Municipal Employees Pension System

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

Texas Municipal Retirement System (TMRS) and Houston Municipal Employees Pension System are meaningfully apart on the LakeQuality pension-health rubric: Texas Municipal Retirement System (TMRS) grades A while Houston Municipal Employees Pension System grades C. Funding ratios: 88% vs 58%.

Texas Municipal Retirement System (TMRS) 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

Texas Municipal Retirement System (TMRS) has a stronger Pension Health Score of 82/100 (A) compared to Houston Municipal Employees Pension System at 55/100 (C). Funding ratios differ by 29.6 percentage points (87.8% vs 58.2%). Texas Municipal Retirement System (TMRS) covers 218,000 participants.

MetricTexas Municipal Retirement System (TMRS)Houston Municipal Employees Pension System
Health Score
Composite of funding ratio, trend, and PBGC risk
82/100 (A)*55/100 (C)
Funding Ratio
Assets as % of liabilities (100%+ is fully funded)
87.8%*58.2%
Total Assets$36.8B$4.5B
Total Liabilities$41.9B$7.7B*
Unfunded Liability$5.1B$3.2B*
Participants218,00028,000
1-Year Investment Return6.3%*5.1%
Plan Typepublicpublic
PBGC Risk Levellowhigh
SponsorTexas CitiesCity of Houston

Texas Municipal Retirement System (TMRS) has a stronger Pension Health Score of 82/100 (A) compared to Houston Municipal Employees Pension System at 55/100 (C). Funding ratios differ by 29.6 percentage points (87.8% vs 58.2%). Texas Municipal Retirement System (TMRS) covers 218,000 participants.

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