MetLife Inc., New York, expects to contribute a total of $220 million to its U.S. pension funds in 2019, the insurer disclosed in its 10-K filing with the SEC on Friday.
MetLife said in the filing it plans to contribute $150 million to its U.S. qualified pension plans and $70 million to its non-qualified pension plans this year. In 2018, MetLife contributed a total of $306 million to its U.S. and non-U.S. pension plans; the company did not break down the contributions by region.
As of Dec. 31, U.S. pension plan assets totaled $8.615 billion, while projected benefit obligations totaled $9.58 billion, for a funding ratio of 89.9%, up from 89.2% a year earlier. The discount rate for 2018 was 4.35%, up from 3.65% the previous year.
As of Dec. 31, the actual allocation of the U.S. pension plans was 82% fixed income, 10% equities and 8% alternatives.
