U.S. state pension plans' aggregate funding ratio was 81.4% as of March 31, a 5.3 percentage-point drop from the end of the year, according to Wilshire Advisors estimates.
The drop in the estimated aggregated funding ratio from 86.7% as of Dec. 31 resulted from a 5.6% decrease in asset values along with a 0.5% increase in liability values, according to Wilshire.
Ned McGuire, managing director at Wilshire, said in a news release that significant asset volatility was the story of the first quarter.
"(It was) highlighted by the over 11% trough-to-peak values intramonth during March for the FT Wilshire 5000 index," Mr. McGuire said. "Today's funding ratio is essentially back to what it was a year earlier."
As of March 31, 2021, Wilshire's estimated aggregate funding ratio for U.S. state pension plans was 81.3%.
The study's assumed asset allocation of U.S. state pension plans is 31% domestic equities, 23% core fixed income, 17% international equities, 14% real assets, 9% private equity and 6% high-yield fixed income.
