Like a snowflake dancing on the breeze uncertain where to land, how private-sector pension plans fared was a bit indeterminate in December, according to a variety of analysts.
This continues the neither-fish-no-fowl results reported in November and that have held sway since August, with some measures showing progress and others regression, and then the reverse. 
Still, big picture the good news continues to include (1) funding levels around 100%, give or take, and (2) continued relative stability.
Plan Funding
October Three, which tracks two hypothetical plans—one that is traditionally invested, and one that is conservatively invested—reports that the former slipped by 2% while the latter remained static from the month before.
Insight Investment found a similar result, reporting that the funded status of the top 100 U.S. corporate pension plans was 106.6% in December, 1.6 percentage points lower than November’s 108.2%. Milliman reports that in the year’s final month, the funded status of the 100 largest corporate pension plans fell by almost the same amount, 1.5 percentage points. Willis Towers Watson similarly showed a 1.6 percentage point drop, with funded status of the hypothetical plan it tracks standing at 105.7% by New Year’s Eve.
Aon’s analysis of pension plans run by S&P 500 companies also shows a decline in funded status. Their figures, however, show a slightly smaller decline of 1.2 percentage points.
Assets
The stockings hung by the chimney with care swelled with assets in December. October Three’s traditional plan showed seasonal bounty 5% greater than in the month previous, and its conservative plan’s assets grew by 4%. Aon, too, reports that assets grew by 4 percentage points.
Returns on investment, too, were more flush than earlier in the year. In December, asset returns reported by Aon were 5.2% higher than in November; those reported by Insight Investment were 5.5% higher. The equity portion of the benchmark portfolio Willis Towers Watson tracks showed a 5.7% higher return in December; the fixed income portion showed an increase too, albeit a smaller one of 3.4%.
No one matched the results Milliman reported, however—they say that in the fourth quarter, investment returns jumped by 9.23%.
Liabilities
October Three says that pension liabilities jumped by 4% to 7% in December. The other analysts showed remarkable consistency in their gauging of how liabilities grew in December: Aon, 6 percentage points, and Insight Investment and Willis Towers Watson, both at 6.5 percentage points.
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