Study looks at pensions

LINCOLNSHIRE - In response to soaring liabilities and record-low funding levels, a new survey by Hewitt Associates, a global human resources consulting and outsourcing company, finds that most U.S. companies are taking active steps to reduce their overall pension risk by changing the way they fund, invest and design their pension plans.

Most notably, the U.S. findings of Hewitt's annual Global Pension Risk survey revealed that a majority of the 153 large U.S. employers surveyed have adopted funding policies designed to maintain an 80 percent funded level.

There is growing interest among U.S. companies to implement dynamic asset allocation strategies, which "de-risk" their pension plans as the plan's funded ratio improves, according to the survey.