Note 11. Employee Benefit Plans with Related Party

The General Partner has a qualified 401(k) Savings and Profit Sharing Plan that covers eligible employees. Employees may elect to contribute up to 60% of their compensation to the 401(k) Savings and Profit Sharing Plan for each payroll period, subject to annual dollar limitations which are periodically adjusted by the cost of living index. The General Partner's discretionary matching contributions to the 401(k) Savings and Profit Sharing Plan are equal to 50% of each employee's contributions that do not exceed 4% of the employee's compensation. The General Partner also makes discretionary non-matching contributions for certain groups of employees in amounts up to 2% of eligible compensation. Profit-sharing contributions may also be made at the sole discretion of the General Partner's board of directors. This plan had expenses of approximately $1.6 million, $1.1 million and $1.0 million for the years ended December 31, 2012, 2011 and 2010, respectively, which are included in selling, general and administrative expenses in the accompanying statements of income.

In addition, the General Partner has two qualified pension plans (the "Plans") that cover all eligible employees. Effective December 31, 2009, the Global Partners LP Pension Plan (the "Global Plan") was amended to freeze participation in and benefit accruals under the Global Plan. In order to reduce the adverse effects of the pension freeze on employees with substantial service who may not have time to replace future pension accruals with retirement savings before reaching the normal retirement age of 65, employees meeting certain age and service requirements received increased benefits under the Global Plan, effective December 31, 2009.

In connection with the acquisition of Alliance, the Partnership assumed the Global Montello Group Corp. Pension Plan (the "GMG Plan"). On March 15, 2012, the GMG Plan was amended to freeze participation in and benefit accruals under the GMG Plan. As a result of the freeze, the Partnership recognized a curtailment gain of approximately $0.5 million which was recorded as an offset to selling, general and administrative expenses in the accompanying consolidated statement of income for the year ended December 31, 2012. The curtailment gain consisted of approximately $2.8 million in a change in benefit obligation and approximately $2.3 million in an unrecognized net actuarial loss.

The following table presents each plan's funded status and the total amounts recognized in the Partnership's consolidated balance sheets at December 31 (in thousands):

	December 31, 2012

	Global Plan		GMG Plan		Total
Projected benefit obligation	$	17,317	$	5,779	$	23,096
Fair value of plan assets		12,980		4,178		17,158

Net unfunded pension liability	$	4,337	$	1,601	$	5,938

	December 31, 2011

	Global Plan		GMG Plan		Total
Projected benefit obligation	$	15,708	$	—	$	15,708
Fair value of plan assets		12,487		—		12,487

Net unfunded pension liability	$	3,221	$		$	3,221

The change in the Global Plan pension liability in 2012 of $1.4 million has been recorded in other comprehensive income. Total actual return on plan assets was $1.7 million and $0.3 million in 2012 and 2011, respectively. The total net periodic pension costs related to the Plans were $75,000, $83,000 and $188,000 in 2012, 2011 and 2010, respectively.

The discount rate for 2012 was selected by performing a cash flow/bond matching analysis based on the Citigroup Above-Median Pension Discount Curve for December 2012. The discount rate for 2011 was determined by examining the yields observed on the measurement date of fixed-interest, high quality investments expected to be available during the period to maturity of the related benefits on a plan by plan basis. The discount rate for each of the Plans was 3.5% in 2012 and, for the Global Plan, 4.5% in 2011. The expected long-term rate of return on plan assets is determined by using each plan's respective target allocation and historical returns for each asset class. The expected long-term rate of return for each of the plans was 8.0% in 2012 and, for the Global Plan, 8.0% in 2011 and 2010.

The fundamental investment objective of the Plans is to provide a rate of return sufficient to fund the retirement benefits under the Plans at a reasonable cost to the General Partner, which is the Plan's sponsor. At a minimum, the rate of return should equal or exceed the discount rate assumed by the Plans' actuaries in projecting the funding cost of the Plans under the applicable Employee Retirement Income Security Act, or ERISA, standards. To do so, the General Partner's Pension Committee (the "Committee") may appoint one or more investment managers to invest all or portions of the assets of the Plans in accordance with specific investment guidelines, objectives, standards and benchmarks.

The Plans are not significant to the Partnership. Total contributions made by the Partnership to the Plans were $0.5 million in 2012 and, for the Global Plan, $1.7 million and $1.1 million in 2011 and 2010, respectively.