Employee Benefit Plans

We currently offer a variety of employee benefit plans, including a 401(k) savings plan and non-qualified plans, including our frozen unfunded supplemental management and executive benefit plans (collectively, the “SERPs”), a frozen pension restoration plan (“Restoration”) and a deferred compensation plan.

The non-qualified plans are exempt from most provisions of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act because they are only available to a select group of management and highly compensated employees and are therefore not qualified employee benefit plans. To preserve the tax-deferred savings advantages of a non-qualified plan, federal law requires that it be an unfunded or informally funded future promise to pay.

As part of our acquisition of CDS Mapping in December 2012, we recorded a liability related to the pension obligation and an asset related to the fair value of plan assets. The CDS Mapping plan was terminated, effective December 31, 2012. Refer below for details of the amounts recorded. In addition refer to Note 16 - Acquisitions, for further details of the CDS Mapping acquisition.

The following table summarizes the balance sheet impact, including benefit obligations, assets and funded status associated with the SERPs and Restoration plan as of December 31, 2014 and 2013:



(in thousands)	2014			2013
Change in projected benefit obligation:
Benefit obligation at beginning of period	$	27,059		$	34,102
Service costs	282			637
Interest costs	1,233			1,293
Actuarial losses/(gains)	5,564			(5,826		)
Benefits paid	(1,879		)	(3,147		)
Projected benefit obligation at end of period	$	32,259		$	27,059

Change in plan assets:
Plan assets at fair value at beginning of period	$	—		$	1,432
Actual return on plan assets	—			(53		)
Company contributions	1,879			1,770
Benefits paid	(1,879		)	(3,149		)
Plan assets at fair value at end of the period	—			—
Reconciliation of funded status:
Unfunded status of the plans	$	(32,259	)	$	(27,059	)

Amounts recognized in the consolidated balance sheet consist of:
Accrued benefit liability	$	(32,259	)	$	(27,059	)
Pension plan asset	$	—		$	—
	$	(32,259	)	$	(27,059	)
Amounts recognized in accumulated other comprehensive income/(loss):
Unrecognized net actuarial loss	$	13,685		$	8,840
Unrecognized prior service credit	(6,775		)	(7,920		)
	$	6,910		$	920

The net periodic pension cost for the years ended December 31, 2014, 2013 and 2012, for the FAC defined benefit pension plan, SERPs, Restoration plan and CDS Mapping cash balance plan includes the following components:



(in thousands)	2014			2013			2012
Expenses:
Service costs	$	282		$	637		$	932
Interest costs	1,231			1,293			1,386
Expected return on plan assets	—			(57		)	(41		)
Amortization of net (gain)/loss	(424		)	179			80
Net periodic benefit cost	$	1,089		$	2,052		$	2,357

Weighted-average discount rate used to determine costs for the plans were as follows:



	2014		2013		2012
SERP Plans	4.72	%	3.89	%	4.52	%
Restoration Plan	4.82	%	4.02	%	4.57	%
CDS Mapping	N/A		N/A		4.00	%

Weighted-average actuarial assumptions used to determine benefit obligations for the plans were as follows:



	2014		2013
SERP Plans
Discount rate	3.85	%	4.72	%
Salary increase rate	N/A		N/A
Restoration Plan
Discount rate	3.98	%	4.82	%
CDS Mapping
Discount rate	N/A		N/A
Salary increase rate	N/A		N/A

The discount-rate assumption used for pension plan accounting reflects the yield available on high-quality, fixed-income debt securities that match the expected timing of the benefit obligation payments.

The following table provides the funded status in the defined SERPs as of December 31, 2014, 2013 and 2012:



(in thousands)	2014		2013		2012
Projected benefit obligation	$	32,259	$	27,059	$	34,102
Accumulated benefit obligation	$	32,259	$	27,059	$	34,102
Plan assets at fair value at end of year	$	—	$	—	$	—

The following benefit payments for all plans, which reflect expected future turnover, as appropriate, are expected to be paid as follows:



(in thousands)
2015	$	1,955
2016	1,414
2017	1,397
2018	1,379
2019	1,361
2020-2024	8,358
	$	15,864

The Corelogic, Inc. 401(k) Savings Plan (the "Savings Plan") allows for employee-elective contributions up to the maximum deductible amount as determined by the Internal Revenue Code. We make discretionary matching contributions to the Savings Plan based on participant contributions as well as discretionary contributions based on profitability. The expense within continuing operations for the years ended December 31, 2014, 2013 and 2012 related to the Savings Plan were $5.7 million, $7.6 million and $6.0 million, respectively. The Savings Plan allows the participants to purchase shares of our common stock as one of the investment options, subject to certain limitations. The Savings Plan held 866,559 and 951,704 shares of our common stock, representing 1.0% of the total shares outstanding at December 31, 2014 and 2013.

We have a deferred compensation plan that allows participants to defer up to 80% of their salary, commissions and bonus. Participants allocate their deferrals among a variety of investment crediting options (known as “deemed investments”). Deemed investments mean that the participant has no ownership interest in the funds they select; the funds are only used to measure the gains or losses that will be attributed to their deferral account over time. Participants can elect to have their deferral balance paid out in a future year while they are still employed or after their employment ends. The participants’ deferrals and any earnings on those deferrals are general unsecured obligations of the Company. The Company is informally funding the deferred compensation plan through a tax-advantaged investment known as variable universal life insurance. Deferred compensation plan assets are held as a Company asset within a special trust, called a “rabbi trust.”

The value of the assets underlying our deferred compensation plan was $30.3 million and $30.5 million as of December 31, 2014 and 2013, respectively, and is included in other assets in the consolidated balance sheets. The unfunded liability for our deferred compensation plan was $34.2 million and $34.3 million as of December 31, 2014 and 2013, respectively, and is included in other liabilities in the accompanying consolidated balance sheets.