Postretirement Benefit Cost

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2020

The components of Net periodic benefit cost of the Company’s pension plan are as follows:


	Three Months Ended March 31,
	2020		2019
Service cost	$	2,005	$	1,714
Interest cost	544		521
Expected return on plan assets	(524)		(334)




Net periodic benefit cost	$	2,025	$	1,901

The Company made contributions to the defined benefit pension plan of $1.7 million during the three months ended March 31, 2020. The Company currently plans to make pension plan contributions during 2020 sufficient to satisfy pension funding requirements under the AdvanSix Retirement Earnings Plan in an aggregate amount of approximately $5 to $10 million and will continue to evaluate options afforded under the CARES Act with respect to the deferral of pension plan contributions for calendar year 2020. We anticipate making additional contributions in future years sufficient to satisfy pension funding requirements in those periods.

The pension plan assets are invested through a master trust fund. The strategic asset allocation for the trust fund is selected by the Company's Investment Committee reflecting the results of comprehensive asset and liability modeling. The Investment Committee establishes strategic asset allocation percentage targets and appropriate benchmarks for significant asset classes with the aim of achieving a prudent balance between return and risk.