NOTE 16 - RETIREMENT PLANS

International Paper sponsors and maintains the Retirement Plan of International Paper Company (the Pension Plan), a tax-qualified defined benefit pension plan that provides retirement benefits to substantially all U.S. salaried employees and hourly employees (receiving salaried benefits) hired prior to July 1, 2004, and substantially all other U.S. hourly and union employees who work at a participating business unit regardless of hire date. These employees generally are eligible to participate in the Pension Plan upon attaining 21 years of age and completing one year of eligibility service. U.S. salaried employees and hourly employees (receiving salaried benefits) hired after June 30, 2004, are not eligible for the Pension Plan, but receive a company contribution to their individual savings plan accounts; however, salaried employees hired by Temple Inland prior to March 1, 2007 or Weyerhaeuser Company's Cellulose Fibers division prior to December 1, 2011 also participate in the Pension Plan.

The Pension Plan provides defined pension benefits based on years of credited service and either final average earnings (salaried employees and hourly employees receiving salaried benefits), hourly job rates or specified benefit rates (hourly and union employees).

The Company will freeze participation, including credited service and compensation, for salaried employees under the Pension Plan, the Pension Restoration Plan and the two SERP plans for all service on or after January 1, 2019. This change will not affect benefits accrued through December 31, 2018.

Net periodic pension expense for our qualified and nonqualified U.S. defined benefit plans comprised the following:



	Three Months Ended June 30,						Six Months Ended June 30,
In millions	2017			2016			2017			2016
Service cost	$	39		$	36		$	79		$	73
Interest cost	139			158			277			314
Expected return on plan assets	(193		)	(206		)	(385		)	(412		)
Actuarial loss	88			96			173			190
Amortization of prior service cost	7			10			14			20
Settlement	—			439			—			439
Net periodic pension expense	$	80		$	533		$	158		$	624

In the first quarter of 2016, International Paper offered a voluntary, limited-time opportunity for former employees who were participants in the Retirement Plan of International Paper Company (the Pension Plan) to request early payment of their entire Pension Plan benefit in the form of a single lump sum payment. The amount of total payments under this program was approximately $1.2 billion, and were made from Plan trust assets on June 30, 2016. Based on the level of payments made, settlement accounting rules applied and resulted in a plan remeasurement as of the June 30, 2016 payment date. The discount rate used in the plan remeasurement was 3.80%, down from 4.40% at December 31, 2015. As a result of settlement accounting, the Company recognized a pro-rata portion of the unamortized net actuarial loss, after remeasurement, resulting in a $439 million non-cash charge to the Company's earnings in the second quarter of 2016.

The Company’s funding policy for our pension plans is to contribute amounts sufficient to meet legal funding requirements, plus any additional amounts that the Company may determine to be appropriate considering the funded status of the plan, tax deductibility, the cash flows generated by the Company, and other factors. The Company made voluntary cash contributions of $250 million to the qualified pension plan in the first six months of 2016. No contributions have been made to date in 2017, but the Company intends to make a voluntary cash contribution in the aggregate amount of $1.25 billion to the qualified pension plan by September 15, 2017. The nonqualified defined benefit plans are funded to the extent of benefit payments, which totaled $10 million for the six months ended June 30, 2017.