how much money the plan ends up with at the end of the year depends on the amount they paid out to participants and the investment growth they earned on the money as such shifts in the market can cause a fund to be either underfunded or overfunded 
it is common for defined benefit plans to become overfunded in the hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars an overfunded pension plan will not result in increased participant benefits and cannot be used by the business or its owners 