The funded status improved meaningfully for pension funds in April. The Milliman 100 Public Pension Funding Index, which tracks the 100 largest government-sponsored defined benefit pension plans, showed an investment return of 5.92% for the month, reducing the group’s estimated deficit by $200 billion to end the month at $1.619 trillion. The funding ratio for index constituents improved to 69.8% from 66.0% at the end of March. The group controlled total assets of $3.750 trillion at the end of April. The recovery comes on the heels of a brutal Q1. Wilshire Consulting reported that the quarter-end funding ratio for state pension plans was the lowest in its three decades of data. The Milliman report is available here.