Funding ratios for U.S. corporate pension plans increased in October, according to reports from Legal & General Investment Management America, Wilshire, Northern Trust Asset Management and Insight Investment.

LGIMA found in its monthly pension solutions monitor that the funding ratio of a typical corporate pension plan increased by 2 percentage points to 91.7% in October primarily due to strong performance from global equities.

LGIMA estimated that U.S. Treasury rates dropped 4 basis points while credit spreads remained relatively unchanged, resulting in the average discount rate dropping by 4 basis points.

Liabilities for the typical plan increased 0.8%, while plan assets with a traditional 60% equity/40% bond asset allocation increased by about 3.1%, LGIMA said.

As measured by Wilshire, U.S. corporate pension plans’ aggregate funding ratio increased by an estimated 1.1 percentage points to 94% in October.

The investment consulting firm attributed the change to asset values increasing by 2.3 percentage points partially offset by liability values rising 1 percentage point.

“October’s funded ratio increase nearly reversed all of September’s decline, driven by the monthly increase in nearly all asset classes lead by U.S. equities,” said Ned McGuire, a managing director at Wilshire, in a news release issued Monday, adding that “U.S. equity values … posted their largest increase since November 2020 and the third largest gain since April 2020.”

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