13. RETIREMENT AND POSTRETIREMENT PLANS

The Holding Company or the Bank maintains the Retirement Plan of Dime Community Bank (the "Employee Retirement Plan"), the Retirement Plan for Board Members of Dime Community Bancshares, Inc. (the "Outside Director Retirement Plan"), the BMP, and the Postretirement Welfare Plan of Dime Community Bank (the "Postretirement Plan").

The Company adopted ASU 2017-07, Compensation-Retirement Benefits (Topic 715), on January 1, 2018. The components of net periodic costs are included in other non-interest expense in the Consolidated Statements of Operations. Net expenses associated with these plans were comprised of the following components:

	Three Months Ended March 31,
	2018						2017
	BMP, Employee and Outside Director Retirement Plans			Postretirement Plan			BMP, Employee and Outside Director Retirement Plans			Postretirement Plan

Service cost	$	-		$	-		$	-		$	-
Interest cost		292			14			329			14
Expected return on assets		(430	)		-			(395	)		-
Unrecognized past service liability		-			(2	)		-			(2	)
Amortization of unrealized loss (gain)		289			-			359			(1	)
Net periodic cost	$	151		$	12		$	293		$	11

The Company disclosed in its consolidated financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2017 that it expected to make contributions to, or benefit payments on behalf of, benefit plans during 2018 as follows: Employee Retirement Plan - $17, Outside Director Retirement Plan - $226, Postretirement Plan - $121, and BMP - $564. The Company made contributions of $4 to the Employee Retirement Plan during the three months ended March 31, 2018 and expects to make the remainder of the contributions during 2018. The Company made benefit payments of $56 on behalf of the Outside Director Retirement Plan during the three months ended March 31, 2018 and expects to make the remainder of the estimated net contributions or benefit payments during 2018. The Company made benefit payments totaling $17 on behalf of the Postretirement Plan during the three months ended March 31, 2018 and expects to make any additional contributions or benefit payments required for 2018. The Company made benefit payments totaling $137 on behalf of the BMP during the three month period ended March 31, 2018 and expects to make the remaining anticipated benefit payments during 2018.

The BMP exists in order to compensate executive officers for any curtailments in benefits due to statutory limitations on qualifying benefit plans. During the three-month period ended March 31, 2018, in addition to benefit payments from the defined benefit plan component of the BMP discussed above, gross lump-sum distributions of $1,199 were made to retired participants. One distribution was satisfied by 22,051 shares of Common Stock (market value of $942) held by the previous Employee Stock Ownership Plan component of the BMP and cash of $257 held by the defined contribution plan components of the BMP. As a result of the distribution, a non-cash tax benefit of $285 was recognized for the difference between market value and cost basis of the Common Stock held by the BMP.