Note 6 Retirement Plans

The Company has a qualified retirement savings plan, the Weis Markets, Inc. Retirement Savings Plan, covering substantially all full-time associates. The plan has a contributory component as well as a noncontributory profit-sharing component for certain associates. The noncontributory component covers eligible associates which included certain salaried associates, store management and administrative support personnel. The Company also has three non-qualified supplemental retirement plans covering highly compensated employees of the Company. The Company’s policy is to fund retirement plan costs as accrued, with the exception of the deferred compensation plan. Employer contributions to the qualified retirement plan are made at the sole discretion of the Company.

Retirement plan costs:



(dollars in thousands)		2016		2015		2014
Retirement savings plan		3,593		3,161		3,010
Deferred compensation plan		788		(318)		1,328
Supplemental executive retirement plan		909		484		1,061
Deferred compensation plan for pharmacists		284		(165)		(228)
	$	5,574	$	3,162	$	5,171

The Company maintains a non-qualified deferred compensation plan for the payment of specific amounts of annual retirement benefits to certain officers or their beneficiaries over an actuarially computed normal life expectancy. Currently, there are no active officers in the plan. The expected payments under the plan provisions were determined through actuarial calculations dependent on the age of the recipient, using an assumed discount rate. The plan is unfunded and accounted for on an accrual basis. The recorded liability at December 31, 2016 is $6,077,000, which is based on expected payments to be made over the remaining lives of the beneficiaries. This amount is included in “Accrued expenses” and “Postretirement benefit obligations” in the Consolidated Balance Sheets. The expected payment amounts are approximately $1,976,000 for 2017 and approximately $1,013,000 for the years thereafter dependent on the lives of the beneficiaries.

The Company also maintains a non-qualified supplemental executive retirement plan and a non-qualified pharmacist deferred compensation plan for certain of its associates. These plans are designed to provide retirement benefits and salary deferral opportunities because of limitations imposed by the Internal Revenue Code and the Regulations implemented by the Internal Revenue Service. These plans are unfunded and accounted for on an accrual basis. Participants in these plans are excluded from participation in the profit sharing portion of the Weis Markets, Inc. Retirement Savings Plan once their yearly earnings exceed the IRS highly compensated threshold. The Board of Directors annually determines the amount of the allocation to the plans at its sole discretion. The allocation among the various plan participants is made in both flat dollar amounts and in relationship to their compensation. Plan participants are 100% vested in their accounts after six years of service with the Company. Benefits are distributed among participants upon reaching the applicable retirement age. Substantial risk of benefit forfeiture does exist for participants in these plans. The present value of accumulated benefits amounted to $11,176,000 and $9,079,000 at December 31, 2016 and December 26, 2015, respectively, and is included in “Postretirement benefit obligations” in the Consolidated Balance Sheets.

The Company has no other postretirement benefit plans.