The list of issues General Electric management have been dealing with is long. There’s one that hasn’t gotten a lot of attention: GE’s pension plan is underfunded.

That’s in addition to problems at GE Capital, growing reserves for long-term-care insurance, ongoing Securities and Exchange Commission and Justice Department investigations, and defects with new power-generation turbine blades, as well as significant turnover in the C-suite. Wall Street analysts continue to slash their price targets for the stock.

GE...