Milliman today released the results of its latest Pension Funding Index, which analyzes the 100 largest U.S. corporate pension plans. In December, these pension plans experienced a $7 billion decrease in funded status based on an $18 billion decrease in asset values and an $11 billion decrease in pension liabilities. The funded status for these pensions decreased from 83.3% to 82.7%. For the year, these pensions improved their pension status by $35 billion, growing from 81.5% at the end of 2014 to 82.7% at the end of 2015.

The good news is that pension funded status improved in 2015. The bad news is that this improvement was underwhelming and we’re basically in the same place we were a year ago, despite cooperative interest rates.

Looking forward, under an optimistic forecast with rising interest rates (reaching 4.82% by the end of 2016 and 5.42% by the end of 2017) and asset gains (11.3% annual returns), the funded ratio would climb to 95% by the end of 2016 and 109% by the end of 2017. Under a pessimistic forecast (3.62% discount rate at the end of 2016 and 3.02% by the end of 2017 and 3.3% annual returns), the funded ratio would decline to 75% by the end of 2016 and 69% by the end of 2017.