The pension plans of the companies in the Standard and Poor's 500-stock index were underfunded by about $362 billion in 2008, according to David Zion, an analyst at Credit Suisse. Of the 500 companies in the index, 360 had plans that were underfunded.

"It may be quite likely that you work for someone that has an underfunded pension plan, but if I was in that situation, would that worry me? Not as long as I was under that maximum annual guarantee of the PBGC. The vast majority of people are," said Jack L. VanDerhei, research director for the Employee Benefit Research Institute.

Finding out whether your pension is underfunded isn't hard but takes a little digging. If you work for a publicly traded company, you can look at your employer's annual report, also known as a 10-K, which it is required to file with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Look for a line that gives the company's benefit obligation and another that lists the plan's assets. Let's say the assets amount to $90 million and the obligation is $100 million. That means your pension is 90 percent funded.

Courtesy of WashingtonPost.com