Source: Bakersfield.com Milliman, Inc., a premier global consulting and actuarial firm, today announced that the aggregate funded percentage for U.S. multiemployer defined benefit pension plans has reached 100%, according to its midyear 2025 Multiemployer Pension Funding Study (MPFS). The MPFS estimate is based on assumptions and data in the latest Form 5500 filings for all U.S. multiemployer plans. Read the full article
By Freshia Gonzales Source: Benefits and Pensions Monitor A decade and a half after the global financial crisis (GFC), defined benefit (DB) schemes across the G7 are recording funding surpluses, marking a reversal from persistent deficits that weighed on plan sponsors and regulators. The change is driven by the sharp rise in interest rates and bond yields since 2022, which increased discount rates and lowered the present value of liabilities. Even as credit spreads sit near 10-year lows, absolute [...]
By Emily Boyle Source: AI-CIO The state and local pension funding ratio is projected to have increased to 77.7% in fiscal 2025, according to the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College. That ratio is up 1.5 percentage points since 2023, while the S&P Index jumped more than 40% over the same period. Meanwhile, the National Conference of Public Employee Retirement Systems reported in its annual retirement study, released in February, that the funded level of the average public [...]
By Sadie James Source: Benefits Canada Earlier this year, Mexico’s senate approved the creation of a new pension fund to help provide more retirement security for low-income citizens. The reform aims to ensure pensioners receive 100 per cent of their last monthly salary up to roughly 16,777 Mexican pesos (US$975), which is the average monthly wage for workers affiliated with the Mexican Social Security Institute. “Congress approved this change to the pension system, which basically established a new welfare [...]
By Rob Koslowski Source: Pensions & Investments United Parcel Service Inc., Atlanta, plans to contribute $1.2 billion to its U.S. pension plans in 2024. The shipping company disclosed its plans in its Feb. 20 10-K filing with the SEC. UPS previously contributed $1.2 billion to the U.S. pension plans in 2023 and $2 billion to the plans in 2022. Read the full article
By Rob Kozlowski Source: Pensions & Investments Ford Motor Co., Dearborn, Mich., expects to contribute about $1 billion to its global pension plans in 2024. The auto company disclosed its plans in its 10-K filing with the SEC on Feb. 7. Ford contributed $756 million to its non-U.S. plans and $238 million to its U.S. plans in 2023, according to the filing. The new filing did not break down how the company plans to make contributions by region in [...]
Source: Benefits Canada Reassuring frustrated blue-collar voters, U.S. President Joe Biden on Wednesday visited Ohio iron workers to highlight federal action to shore up troubled pension funding for millions now on the job or retired — and to make his political case that he’s been a champion for workers in the White House. Biden’s speech at a Cleveland high school showcased a final rule tied to his US$1.9 trillion coronavirus pandemic relief package from last year. The rule allows [...]
Source: Benefits Canada The average Ontario defined benefit pension plan is in the best funded position since December 2009, according to the Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario’s latest quarterly solvency report. It found 81 per cent DB plans had a solvency ratio greater than 100 per cent at the end of 2021, compared to 67 per cent at the end of the third quarter of 2021 and 45 per cent in the last quarter of 2020. In addition, [...]
By Jack Gray Source: Pensions Age The health of defined benefit (DB) schemes in the UK reached a “new high” in Q4 2021, with the typical scheme expected to be able to fund 98.4 per cent of accrued pension benefits, according to Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM). The typical scheme being able to fund 98.4 per cent of accrued benefits, as at 31 December 2021, was 0.1 percentage points higher than the 98.3 per cent figure recorded at [...]
By Greg Iacurci Source: CNBC The pension plans of big U.S. companies haven’t looked this good since before the 2008 financial crisis — and that’s good news for workers and employers. A pension’s “funded” status is a core gauge of its health. It’s a measure of plan assets relative to liabilities (how much money the plan needs to pay future income). Pensions less than 100% funded don’t have enough money on hand to meet future obligations to retirees. The [...]
Source: Benefits Canada The aggregate funded ratio for Canadian defined benefit pension plans in the S&P/TSX composite index increased from 94.8 per cent in the first quarter of 2021 to 95.6 per cent in the second quarter, according to a new report from Aon. It also found pension assets rose by four per cent during the same period. The rise was credited to positive returns on fixed income assets and continued strong equity market performance. However, long term Government of [...]
By: Rebecca Moore Source: Plan Sponsor The aggregate funded ratio for U.S. defined benefit (DB) pension plans sponsored by S&P 500 companies increased by an estimated 0.1 percentage point month-over-month in May to end the month at 94.2%, according to Wilshire. The monthly change in funding resulted from a 0.6 percentage point increase in asset values partially offset by a 0.7 percentage point increase in liability values. The aggregate funded ratio is estimated to have increased by 6.4 and [...]
The House plans to vote on a COVID reconciliation bill this week. It is vital that Members of Congress support the pension provisions it contains. Before the pandemic, a small but important group of multiemployer pension plans was heading toward insolvency. These insolvencies will cause the federal government’s Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) to become insolvent. These insolvencies will cause 1.3 million Americans to lose about 98 percent of their pension income and be forced onto the federal government’s [...]
Approximately half (51%) of UK savers are likely to review or reduce pension contributions in favour of short-term saving or debt reduction or elimination as a result of the Covid-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic, according to research by BlackRock. Its Defined contribution (DC) pulse survey, which surveyed 1,000 UK savers, also found that 76% agree that they need to be more careful about their financial future, although a further 44% see retirement saving as important. However, more than half (51%) said [...]
Indiana’s public pension funds for state and local government employees, including teachers, has apparently weathered the financial markets’ volatility during the coronavirus pandemic, new data from the state show. The General Assembly’s Pension Management Oversight Committee heard Wednesday that the Indiana Public Retirement System increased its pension assets by 2.56% to $30.6 billion during the 2020 budget year, which ran from July 1, 2019, to June 30, 2020. According to INPRS, the state’s prepaid pension programs were 90.6% funded, [...]
The funding status of the largest corporate pension plans in the U.S. have rebounded during the second quarter of 2020, due to improvements in the equity and bond markets, according to Willis Towers Watson data. “The first quarter was a more difficult quarter for the equities,” says Joseph Gamzon, senior director of retirement at Willis Towers Watson, a global advisory, broking and solutions company. “For most pension plan sponsors the combination of the equity markets performing well and the [...]
Members of two United Food & Commercial Workers locals in the Washington region reached a collective bargaining agreement with Safeway Inc. on Wednesday that guarantees full funding of pension benefits for current employees and retirees. A similar agreement was also reached with Giant Food of Maryland, which in February reached a tentative agreement. Union officials said that the more contentious Safeway agreement, ratified by local members hours before a planned strike, was one of very few agreements guaranteeing pensions. [...]