U.S. corporate pension plans’ funding ratios remained over or near 100% in November, but four reports said ratios dropped slightly because rising discount rates offset strong investment returns for the period.

The estimated funding ratio of the 100 largest U.S. corporate pension funds fell to 111.2% as of Nov. 30, down from 113.3% as of Oct. 31, according to the latest Milliman 100 Pension Funding index.

The slight dip was driven by the discount rate decreasing to 5.16% as of Nov. 30, down from 5.71% as of Oct. 31. That offset a strong month for investment returns, which Milliman estimated at 4.6% for November. October investment returns were an estimated 0.21%.

“November’s discount rate decrease was the largest monthly drop of the year and only the second monthly decline we’ve seen in 2022,” said Zorast Wadia, principal and consulting actuary at Milliman and co-author of the pension funding index, in a news release Wednesday. “This caused the plans’ funded status to drop, despite November’s stellar investment returns, which were the largest monthly gains of the year.”

A report from Wilshire noted that the aggregate funding ratio for U.S. corporate plans stayed flat during November at 99.1%, the same as the prior month. A 6.4 percentage point increase in assets was offset by an equal increase in liabilities.

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