In January, the funded status of the 100 largest corporate defined benefit pension plans improved by $61 billion as measured by the Milliman 100 Pension Funding Index (PFI). As of January 31, the funded status deficit narrowed to $221 billion due to investment and liability gains incurred during January. As of January 31, the funded ratio rose to 87.2%, up from 84.1% at the end of December. January’s impressive funded status improvement was greater than that seen in any of the prior months of 2017.

The market value of assets grew by $13 billion as a result of January’s investment gain of 1.20%. The Milliman 100 PFI asset value increased to $1.505 trillion from $1.492 trillion at the end of December. The projected benefit obligation decreased to $1.725 trillion at the end of January.

Over the last 12 months (February 2017-January 2018), the cumulative asset returns for these pensions has been 11.88% and the Milliman 100 PFI funded status deficit only improved by $50 billion. The funded ratio of the Milliman 100 companies has increased over the past 12 months to 87.2% from 83.8%.