Fort Worth, Texas
Planning for Fort Worth households, where long careers meet a fast-growing city.
Fort Worth passed one million residents in 2024 and, at about 1.03 million in July 2025, is the tenth-largest city in the country; only one U.S. city added more people last year. Its employers are anchors: American Airlines, Lockheed Martin, BNSF Railway, Bell and Alcon. Long tenures inside a city still filling in set up the questions we work on here: pensions and 401(k)s, school-district lines, and the city’s own exemptions.
The situation
Anchor employers, and a city still drawing its map
American Airlines runs its headquarters from a campus in Fort Worth beside DFW International Airport. Lockheed Martin Aeronautics builds the F-35 at Air Force Plant 4, where the line delivered a record 191 aircraft in 2025. BNSF Railway and Bell are headquartered here, and Alcon, founded in Fort Worth in 1945, keeps its U.S. operational headquarters and research center on the south side of the city. Careers at employers like these tend to be long, and the retirement decisions arrive as elections with deadlines.
The household numbers: 37,941 Fort Worth households earn $200,000 or more, about one in five earn at least $150,000, and the median owner-occupied home is worth about $303,000. The city extends past Tarrant County into Denton, Parker, Wise and Johnson counties, and Fort Worth ISD shares the city with Keller, Northwest, Eagle Mountain-Saginaw, Crowley and other districts, so the rate on a Fort Worth address depends on which lines it falls inside.
Why it’s complex
Five Fort Worth decisions worth getting in order
Pensions and 401(k)s at the anchor employers
An airline, defense or railroad career often ends with a pension election, sometimes a lump-sum offer, and a 401(k) that is the household’s largest account. Survivor options, the rate behind the lump sum, and the withdrawal order across pension, 401(k) and Social Security are one decision, not three.
Planning for American Airlines employeesSame city, five school rates
In 2025 Fort Worth ISD levies $1.0291 per $100, Northwest ISD $1.0841, Keller ISD $1.0852, Eagle Mountain-Saginaw ISD $1.2457 and Crowley ISD $1.2552. On a median-value home after the $140,000 exemption, the spread between Fort Worth ISD and Crowley ISD is about $369 a year, every year.
Fort Worth’s own homestead exemptions
The City of Fort Worth exempts 20% of a homestead’s value from city tax, adds $80,000 at 65 or if disabled, and freezes the city bill for those homeowners from the year they qualify. At the 2025 city rate of $0.67, the 20% is worth about $406 a year on a median home; the $80,000 is worth about $536 more.
No income tax is not no business tax
Alcon began as a Fort Worth pharmacy in 1945. For the owners who follow, no income tax does not mean no business tax: the Texas franchise tax applies above $2.65 million of annual revenue for 2026 and 2027 reports, at 0.75% of margin (0.375% for retail and wholesale). Entity choice, owner pay and the eventual sale are planned together.
Planning for business ownersYour pension is taxed here, not where you earned it
Federal law bars a state from taxing the qualified retirement income of someone who no longer lives there. A pension or 401(k) built partly in another state and drawn in Fort Worth is taxed federally only, which matters for the many transfers who finished a career here.
Sequencing income across accountsSources: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2020–2024 5-year estimates and Vintage 2025 city population estimates; City of Fort Worth, over-65 and disabled exemption briefing; Texas Comptroller, homestead exemptions; Texas Comptroller, franchise tax; 4 U.S.C. §114; Texas Comptroller 2025 city, ISD and county rate reports.
Our approach
One plan from the last paycheck to the first pension check
We begin with the employer plan documents and the appraisal notice, because in Fort Worth those two pieces of paper decide most of the numbers. A worked example on a home at the city’s median value: the $140,000 exemption lowers the school-taxable value to $163,000, and at Fort Worth ISD’s 2025 rate that is about $1,677 a year for the school portion ($163,000 × $1.0291 / $100). For the city portion, the 20% exemption leaves $242,400, or about $1,624 at the 2025 city rate ($242,400 × $0.67 / $100).
Read the plan before the election
Pension formulas, lump-sum interest rates and early-retirement subsidies are written down. We read them early enough that the retirement date is a choice, not a deadline.
Make the elections in the right order
Pension form and survivor option, lump sum or annuity, 401(k) rollover or stay, health coverage to Medicare, and the year’s tax picture with a final bonus or payout in it.
Keep the house affordable
File the over-65 exemptions with the city and the school district, use the ceilings, and build a withdrawal order that treats the property-tax bill as the fixed cost it is.
The work
What you’ll work through with us
- Pension election analysis: lump sum versus annuity, survivor options
- 401(k) rollover and net-unrealized-appreciation review for employer stock
- A withdrawal order across pension, 401(k), IRA and Social Security
- Homestead, City of Fort Worth over-65 and school-tax ceiling filings
- A line-by-line read of the appraisal notice: county and district
- Business entity, franchise-tax and owner-compensation planning
- Roth conversion sizing in the years before required distributions
- Investment management coordinated with your CPA and estate attorney
Planning is led by Theo Halbardier, CFP®, CIMA®, CAIA®, the firm’s founder. We are fee-only: no commissions, no product sales. About Theo
Questions
Common questions from Fort Worth households
Do you have an office in Fort Worth?
We work with Fort Worth households by video and, by arrangement, in person. We do not maintain a public office location.
How much do Fort Worth's exemptions save?
On a home at the city’s median value of about $303,000, the state’s $140,000 school exemption is worth about $1,441 a year at Fort Worth ISD’s 2025 rate, and about $2,058 once it rises to $200,000 at 65. The city’s 20% exemption is worth about $406 at the 2025 city rate, and its $80,000 over-65 exemption about $536 more. Tarrant County sets its own exemptions.
Which school district taxes our Fort Worth home?
Fort Worth ISD serves much of the city, but Keller, Northwest, Eagle Mountain-Saginaw, Crowley and other districts serve large parts of it, and the 2025 rates run from $1.0291 to $1.2552 per $100. The county can vary too: most of the city is in Tarrant, with portions in Denton, Parker, Wise and Johnson. Your appraisal notice lists every unit that taxes the home.
Should I take the pension or the lump sum?
It depends on the interest rate and mortality table behind the lump sum, your health and your spouse’s, the survivor option you would otherwise choose, and what else you own. We compare the two after tax and show what each does to the plan if one of you lives to 95. The election is usually irrevocable.
We moved here mid-career from another state. Will it tax our retirement income?
Not the qualified part. Federal law (4 U.S.C. §114) bars a state from taxing pension, 401(k) and IRA distributions paid to someone who no longer lives there. Some deferred compensation and income tied to work done in the former state can still be reached, so we document the move.
How are you paid?
We are fee-only. Our clients pay us directly; we do not earn commissions on products.
Reviewed by Theo Halbardier, CFP® · Updated September 2026 · Figures current for 2026
Tell us where you are.
The first conversation is 30 minutes. Bring your questions; no preparation needed.
We work with individuals and families across Fort Worth and throughout Texas, meeting by video or in person by arrangement.
Meet with usWe do not maintain a public office at this location; Fort Worth is part of the area we serve. Figures reflect law and published rates as of September 2026 and may change.