Pension funds in '79 did better in market

The investment performance of pension funds did better against a rising rate of inflation in 1979 than it had the preceding year, according to a recent study of pension and profit-sharing plans by A. G. Becker Inc.

The study found the median return of retirement funds to be 13.1 percent for 1979, just short of the 13.3 percent rate of inflation in the consumer price index. In 1978, median total fund performance, at 5.4 percent, fell well below the year's 9 percent inflation rate.