Pension Plan

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2020

Retirement Benefits [Abstract]

Pension Plan

Note 9 - Pension Plan

The Company had a defined benefit pension plan that was frozen effective January 1, 2004, whereby no new participants were added to the Plan and no additional years of service accrued to participants. The pension plan covered substantially all of the Company’s employees at the time. The benefits for each employee were based on years of service and a percentage of the employee’s qualifying compensation during the final years of employment. The Company’s funding policy was to contribute annually the amount necessary to satisfy the Internal Revenue Service’s funding standards. Contributions to the pension plan, prior to freezing the plan, were intended to provide not only for benefits attributed to service to date but also for those expected to be earned in the future. The Company made no contribution to the plan in 2020 or 2019.

In December 2018, due to the rising interest rate environment, the Company determined it was in the best interest of its shareholders to work toward terminating its pension obligation. The Company annuitized approximately 53% of the pension benefit obligation at that time and recorded a loss on settlement totaling $1,546,000 for the year ended December 31, 2018. In 2019, the Company continued to take steps to completely settle and terminate its remaining pension obligation and recorded loss associated with the final termination of $2,673,000. The loss incurred included unrealized loss previously recorded in other comprehensive income and refunding to remaining participants for funding balance overages offset by a gain on hedging instrument entered into to minimize interest rate movement during the termination period. At December 31, 2019, all balances in the pension plan were zero and the Company’s obligation has been extinguished. For the three-month ended March 31, 2019, the Company recorded pension related expense totaling $923,000.