Defined Benefits

Most of the growth will be in defined contribution plans, although a report from PricewaterhouseCoopers says traditional pension plans will remain viable until mid-century.

Participants in a study who were given the chance to consider several policy changes to shore up the Social Security system favored reducing payments to high wage earners, raising the retirement age and other remedies that would eliminate most of the systems debt.

The Milliman 100 Pension Funding Index found that the funding ratio of the plans fell from 95.2 percent to 91.2 percent, which translated to a $67 billion rise in unfunded liabilities to a total of $140 billion.

Last week, the city sued to cancel more than $1.4 billion in pension debt underlying the swaps.

A proposal last week from Detroit Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr would pay pensioners at more than twice the rate of some bondholders.

After the U.S., where assets rose 12 percent to $18.9 trillion, were Japan with 10.2 percent of assets, and the United Kingdom, with 10.1 percent.

The average defined contribution account balances of Vanguard plan participants soared 18 percent last year to a record average of $101,650.

Public defined benefit plans, endowments and foundations also lost ground in January as a result of the falling equity markets.