Pension Funding Index, January 2011
10 January 2011
The funded status of the largest 100 U.S. corporate defined benefit pension plans in December brought an overall negative year to an optimistic close with an increase of $44 billion. But the impact of historically low interest rates drove the funded status during 2010 overall down by $49 billion. If the Milliman 100 PFI companies achieve their 8.1% median 2010 asset return and if the current discount rate of 5.32% are maintained during 2011 and 2012, the funded status of the surveyed plans would increase, resulting in a projected pension deficit of $261 billion (funded ratio of 82.0%) by the end of 2011 and a projected pension deficit of $208 billion (funded ratio of 85.9%) by the end of 2012.