Milliman, Inc., a premier global consulting and actuarial firm, today released the results of its latest Milliman 100 Pension Funding Index (PFI), which analyzes the 100 largest U.S. corporate pension plans.

As of April 30, the funded status for these plans improved by $48 billion, despite a monthly investment loss of 4.66%. A 78 basis-point increase in discount rates – from 3.62% to 4.30% during April – drove the improvement. This is the highest the PFI monthly discount rate has been since November 2018.

"Despite the value of assets dropping by over 4% for the month, rising interest rates continue to propel pension funding higher," said Zorast Wadia, co-author of the PFI. "The last time the funding surplus was this close to $100 billion was in 2007, prior to the Great Recession."