Rising interest rates have boosted corporate pensions, with funded status reaching a 20-year high in the second half of last year. But rising rates may not prove so kind to companies, from Delta Air Lines Inc. to Sysco Corp. , and their pension costs this year. Within the last year, interest rates rose significantly while asset values fell, driving up pension accounting costs. Plan sponsors that measured these costs at the end of 2022, for instance, saw much higher interest rates than a year earlier, he said, which pushes 2023 balance sheet costs up. The higher costs were driven by a reduction in return on plan assets and higher interest costs, which were only partially offset by higher discount rates, the building materials maker said in a regulatory filing last month.

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