Not only that but, the more lower-ranked individuals claiming friendship with you increases as you advance from one grade to the next and as your number of true friendships grows.
The last point I want to make about juggling return assumptions is that problems have more than likely been compounded by administrators moving incrementally out of low interest return investments and upping allocations to equities (with dire consequences over the past 12 years), extending maturities (which increases risk), and cozying up to the low end of the investment grade spectrum.