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Pension Funding Index February 2025
By Zorast Wadia
The funded status of the 100 largest U.S. corporate defined benefit pension plans increased by $12 billion during January, as measured by the Milliman 100 Pension Funding Index (PFI). The funding surplus improved to $71 billion as a result of liability decreases and investment returns that surpassed expectations. Pension liabilities fell during the month due to a small increase in the benchmark corporate bond interest rates used to value those liabilities. As of January 31, the PFI funded ratio climbed to 105.8%, up from 104.8% at the beginning of the year.
As a result of January’s 1.19% investment return, the market value of PFI plan assets increased by $9 billion, to $1.308 trillion as of January 31. The monthly expected investment return during 2024 was 0.52% (6.4% annualized), as reported in our 2024 Milliman Pension Funding Study (PFS).
The projected benefit obligation, or pension liabilities, decreased to $1.237 trillion at the end of January 2025 from $1.240 trillion at the end of December 2024. The change resulted from a meager increase of 1 basis point in the monthly discount rate, to 5.60% for January from 5.59% for December 2024.
Source Milliman
