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MCALLEN FIREMEN'S RELIEF AND RETIREMENT PLAN
The McAllen Firemen's Relief and Retirement Fund provides service retirement, disability, and death benefits to certain employees of the Fire Department of the...
MCALLEN FIREMEN'S RELIEF AND RETIREMENT PLAN
The McAllen Firemen's Relief and Retirement Fund provides service retirement, disability, and death benefits to certain employees of the Fire Department of the City of McAllen, Texas. Captain Javier Gutierrez, representing the department's Operations Division, chairs the Board of Trustees, which also includes City Manager Isaac J. Tawil and Interim Finance Director Sonia Resendez. The fund operates under the statutory framework of the Texas Local Fire Fighters' Retirement Act (TLFFRA) and is subject to oversight by the Texas Pension Review Board. The fund's investment posture departs from the plain-vanilla core-bond allocation typical of many small municipal pensions. It explicitly targets distressed debt, mezzanine financing, and special situations. Its real-asset exposure includes a direct commercial real estate investment in the McAllen market. On the fund-commitment side, confirmed positions include TerraCap Partners III, TerraCap Partners V — a vehicle targeting commercial real estate across the Southern United States — and CCA Longevity Fund VI, a life-settlements strategy managed by Corry Capital. With an estimated $64 million in assets, the fund is a small institution by any measure. Its board-constituted governance model means investment decisions are made by city and department officials rather than a dedicated internal investment staff or an outsourced chief investment officer. No dedicated professional investment headcount has been disclosed publicly. The fund maintains its administrative presence in McAllen, Texas, the border-region city that sponsors the plan. Its structural differentiator is the portfolio itself. A Texas firefighter pension running direct real estate and committing to niche credit and longevity-linked funds is an outlier in small municipal defined-benefit management. The statutory embed with TLFFRA constrains governance in some dimensions but appears to permit a wider asset-class aperture than many peers of similar size.
General information
Firm type
Pension Fund
Location
Region
North America
Country
United States
City
McAllen
Corporate office
McAllen, TX, United States
Principals
Javier Gutierrez
Chairman of the Board of Trustees
Isaac J. Tawil
Board Member
Sonia Resendez
Board Member
Sector focus
Frequently asked questions
Who runs investment decisions at McAllen Firemen's Relief and Retirement Fund?
The fund is governed by a Board of Trustees chaired by Captain Javier Gutierrez of the McAllen Fire Department's Operations Division. Isaac J. Tawil, the City Manager of McAllen, and Sonia Resendez, the city's Interim Finance Director, also serve as board members. No dedicated investment staff or OCIO relationship is publicly disclosed.
Does the fund manage its assets internally or outsource to an OCIO?
Public records suggest the board retains direct oversight of investment decisions without an outsourced chief investment officer. The governance structure places portfolio authority with city and department officials serving in a fiduciary capacity, consistent with the Texas Local Fire Fighters' Retirement Act framework.
What alternative asset classes does the fund allocate to?
The fund's strategy tags include distressed debt, mezzanine financing, and special situations — a narrower and more opportunistic credit tilt than most municipal pensions pursue. It also holds a direct commercial real estate investment in McAllen and LP interests in TerraCap's value-add real estate funds focusing on the Southern United States.
What unique non-traditional exposures does the fund hold?
The fund is an LP in CCA Longevity Fund VI, a Corry Capital vehicle investing in life settlements — an esoteric asset class virtually unseen in peer small-municipal portfolios. Combined with direct real estate and distressed credit mandates, this makes the fund's asset mix unusually opportunistic for a first-responder pension of its size.
How is the fund regulated?
The fund operates under Texas state law through the Texas Local Fire Fighters' Retirement Act, a statutory framework governing locally administered firefighter pensions. It is also subject to oversight and reporting requirements of the Texas Pension Review Board, the state body that monitors the actuarial soundness of public retirement systems.
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