US pension plans' ability to meet future obligations to members has worsened, with funding ratios falling from 109% to 101% in the fourth quarter of 2007, according to research from UBS Global Asset Management.

According to the asset manager's US Pension Fund Fitness Tracker, a quarterly estimate of the overall health of a typical US defined benefit plan, the decrease is mostly atributable to a drop of eight percentage points in November - the worst month of the year for funding ratios.