It sounds like an idea frozen in time: Spend your career working at a company and then keep getting checks for the rest of your life. Now rising interest rates could help thaw the traditional corporate pension plan.

Forty years ago, 88% of Americans had retirement coverage from defined-benefit plans, according to the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College. These are the classic pension plans in which employers make the contributions and promise a payout, taking on the risk of having earned enough to cover those payments over retirees’ expected lifetimes.