S&P 500’s Biggest Pension Plans Face $382 Billion Funding Gap
ByPeople who rely on their company pension plans to fund their retirement may be in for a shock: Of the 200 biggest defined-benefit plans in the S&P 500 based on assets, 186 aren’t fully funded. Simply put, they don’t have enough money to fund current and future retirees. The situation worsened for more than half of these funds from fiscal 2015 to 2016. A big part of the reason is the poor returns they got from their assets in the superlow interest-rate environment that followed the financial crisis. It’s left a hole of $382 billion for the top 200 plans.
Of course, the percentage of workers covered by traditional defined benefit plans—those that pay a lifetime annuity, often based on years of service and salary—has been declining for decades as companies shift to defined contribution plans such as 401(k)s. But each time a pension plan is terminated, canceled or altered, thousands of workers are affected…
S&P 500’s Biggest Pension Plans Face $382 Billion Funding Gap
