NISA Investment Advisors' Pension Surplus Risk index fell 10 basis points to 6.7% in December.
The index, which estimates the volatility of the funded status of U.S. corporate pension plans, declined 210 basis points over the 12 months ended Dec. 31.
The volatility of the asset component of the index declined to 7.6% from 7.7% in the month, while the volatility of the liability component fell 30 basis points to 7.3% from 7.6%. The average funded status of the sampled plans was 86.9%, down from 87.9% in November, but up from 83.8% a year earlier.
The index is a forward-looking estimate of the funded status volatility of the 100 largest corporate pension plans as determined by NISA from publicly available information.
