TLFFRA Field Guide

Texas Local Fire Fighters Retirement Act (TLFFRA) plans are locally funded, locally governed defined benefit pensions covering paid and part-paid firefighters. Each system has its own seven-member board of trustees and contracts independently for actuarial, custodial, investment, and administrative services. The state's role runs through the Texas Pension Review Board (PRB), which collects reports and publishes comparative data, but does not direct investment policy or benefit design.

A note on terminology: this guide uses AUM for assets under management, FR for funded ratio, AAL for actuarial accrued liability, AVA for actuarial value of assets, FSRP for Funding Soundness Restoration Plan (a statutory remedy under Texas Government Code §802.2015 / 802.2016), and MET for the PRB's Minimum Educational Training program for trustees.

The asset-weighted funded ratio runs about 6.5 percentage points above the simple mean, which reflects that several of the better-funded plans also sit near the top of the asset-size distribution. The directory above shows the distribution.

Click any column header to sort. Use the search box to filter by fund name. The filter chips narrow the list to a single PRB asset-size class. Click any fund name to open its full profile.

AAL = Actuarial Accrued Liability. EAN = Entry Age Normal. UC = Unit Credit. PUC = Projected Unit Credit. "Inf" in the amortization column flags an effectively infinite amortization period under current contributions.

Most TLFFRA plans use the Entry Age Normal cost method with a fixed contribution rate. Discount rates have compressed downward over the last decade, but most plans still assume returns above 7%, which contrasts with the more conservative posture of larger statewide systems.

The PRB's Pension Funding Guidelines establish a maximum amortization period of 30 years, with a preferred range of 10 to 25 years. Plans with funded ratios below 65% combined with amortization periods exceeding 30 years generally trigger a Funding Soundness Restoration Plan (FSRP) requirement under Texas Government Code Section 802.2015 or 802.2016, which obligates the sponsoring city and the board to jointly adopt a plan to bring the system back into compliance within 30 years. Each TLFFRA plan operates locally, and funded-ratio movement reflects decades of contribution policy, benefit design, market returns, and demographic experience, not management quality in any single year.