If you want a well-funded defined benefit plan, head for the financial services industry, energy or consumer staples, according to an analysis of 931 public companies’ DB plans by the BNY Mellon Investment Strategy and Solutions Group.

Conversely, health care companies and perhaps surprisingly, information technology companies tend to be those with the lowest-funded plans.

According to ISSG, financial services companies topped the list at an average funded status of 94 percent, while also having the lowest requirement to fund their plans.

They also tended to court higher risk with equity allocations that were higher than average, ISSG said in its analysis, although well-funded plans in other business sectors sought to cut risk with higher allocations to fixed-income and liability-driven investing strategies.

“While financial services companies may be in a better position than most sectors to adopt a de-risking strategy, many have elected to be aggressively invested,” said Andrew D. Wozniak, head of fiduciary solutions at ISSG. “They can do this as they have the best ability to take on risk, particularly as their defined benefit pension plans are relatively small compared to the size of the companies in the sector.”