Corporate Pension Funding Virtually Unchanged Again

Corporate pension funding in 2016 was largely the same as that of 2015, which was unchanged from 2014, says a recent report.

Corporate pension funding stood at 80% in 2016, according to a Willis Towers Watson report cited on Chief Investment Officer magazine’s website. The Willis report looked at the pensions offered by 410 Fortune 1000 companies. That 80% funding level is 1 percentage point lower than the levels reported in 2014 and 2015.

Pension assets, employer contributions and obligations and deficits grew slightly from 2015 to 2016:

Pension assets: 2015, $1.30 trillion; 2016, $1.31 trillion
Employer contributions: 2015, $31 billion; 2016, $35 billion.
Pension obligations: 2015, $1.61 trillion; 2016, $1.64 trillion
Pension deficit: 2015, $308 billion; 2016, $325 billion

The Willis Towers Watson report attributed the stability to low interest rates.