There was a little good news for pension plans regarding their funding percentage in July, at least by one measure.
Among the plans measured in the Milliman 100 Pension Funding Index, the funded percentage for July improved by 0.1% from June. The percentage stood at 75.7% in July.
The percentage may have increased, but it still is almost 9 percentage points lower than the 84.3% funded percentage Milliman reported in July 2015. Since then, the overall trend has been for a gradual drop, with the exception of a few months which like July showed a slight increase from the preceding month.
Other measures also showed a mixed of bag results. Milliman said that the liabilities of those plans grew slightly from $1.839 trillion at the end of June to $1.868 trillion at the end of July, but at the same time the market value of the plans’ assets grew by $23 billion due to investment gains of just over 2%.
The July 2016 results could have been different, Milliman said, but for strong investment returns. Milliman reported that those returns mitigated the 12 basis point drop in discount rates in July and held the drop in funded status to $5 billion.
The Milliman 100 Pension Funding Index measures the performance of the 100 largest corporate defined benefit plans.
Among the plans measured in the Milliman 100 Pension Funding Index, the funded percentage for July improved by 0.1% from June. The percentage stood at 75.7% in July.
The percentage may have increased, but it still is almost 9 percentage points lower than the 84.3% funded percentage Milliman reported in July 2015. Since then, the overall trend has been for a gradual drop, with the exception of a few months which like July showed a slight increase from the preceding month.
Other measures also showed a mixed of bag results. Milliman said that the liabilities of those plans grew slightly from $1.839 trillion at the end of June to $1.868 trillion at the end of July, but at the same time the market value of the plans’ assets grew by $23 billion due to investment gains of just over 2%.
The July 2016 results could have been different, Milliman said, but for strong investment returns. Milliman reported that those returns mitigated the 12 basis point drop in discount rates in July and held the drop in funded status to $5 billion.
The Milliman 100 Pension Funding Index measures the performance of the 100 largest corporate defined benefit plans.
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