Corporate pensions aren’t happy campers these days—thanks to newlongevity tables.

According to a new study from consulting firm NEPC LLC, thosetables have hit defined benefit plans’ funded statushard.

The 2015 Defined Benefit Plan Trends Survey indicated that thisyear the number of defined benefit plans with a funded status ofless than 80 percent increased dramatically over last year’stotal.

In 2014, only 9 percent reported a funded status below 80percent; in 2015, 21 percent did so.

While the survey examined corporate plan sponsors’ strategicvision for their pension funds, it found that “[t]he most impactfulyear over year change” was the incorporation of the new mortalitytables from the Society of Actuaries.

The mortality improvements in the tablesresulted in “a significant negative impact on plans’ fundedstatus.”

NEPC reported, “The change in mortality tables prompted 69percent of funds to conduct a formal review of their hedging glidepath strategy. Of those that conducted a review, 39 percentredefined their glide path and 10 percent re-risked or revisedtheir strategy to take into account the updated assumptions.”

While sponsors spent a lot of time examining their currentstrategies, the majority (52 percent) decided that they werecomfortable with things the way they were and did not adjustexisting glide paths.

The majority of sponsors, the study said, are hedging interestrate exposure with liability-driven investing (LDI) strategies,while some are also working on cutting the size of pensionliability through lump-sum distributions to groups ofparticipants.

However, this year the IRS banned lump-sum distributions forbeneficiaries currently in payout status.

Sixty-five percent of respondents said that they’ve offeredlump-sum distributions, while 18 percent are planning on doing soin the future. And while most (69 percent) say it’s too expensiveto cut pension liability by offering annuities, some have done soanyway.