Pension and Other Postretirement Benefit Plans

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2015

Pension and Other Postretirement Benefit Plans [Abstract]

Pension and Other Postretirement Benefit Plans

Note 12 — Pension and Other Postretirement Benefit Plans

The Company and certain of its subsidiaries provide pension, health care and life insurance defined benefits to eligible retired employees, spouses and other eligible dependents through various domestic and foreign plans. The effect of its foreign pension and other postretirement benefit plans is immaterial to the Company's results of operations, liquidity and financial position. The Company froze its defined benefit postretirement medical plan in 2013 and its primary domestic pension plans in 2009.

As further discussed in Note 17, the Company and the Cigna Pension Plan are defendants in a class action lawsuit that has yet to be resolved. When the parties agree on a final plan amendment, the pension benefit obligation will be updated to reflect additional benefits resulting from this litigation.

For the nine months ended September 30, 2015, the Company's unrecognized actuarial losses and prior service costs (reported in accumulated other comprehensive income) decreased by $62 million pre-tax in the aggregate ($42 million after-tax) resulting in an increase in shareholders' equity. This change was primarily a result of amortization and, to a lesser extent, the annual valuation update completed during the second quarter of 2015.

Pension and Other Postretirement Benefits. Components of net pension and net other postretirement benefit costs were as follows:

	Pension Benefits								Other Postretirement Benefits
	Three Months Ended				Nine Months Ended				Three Months Ended				Nine Months Ended
	September 30,				September 30,				September 30,				September 30,
(In millions)	2015		2014		2015		2014		2015		2014		2015		2014
Service cost	$	1	$	-	$	2	$	1	$	-	$	-	$	-	$	-
Interest cost		49		52		146		155		3		3		8		9
Expected long-term return on plan assets		(66)		(65)		(199)		(197)		-		(1)		-		(1)
Amortization of:
Net loss from past experience		17		14		52		43		-		-		-		-
Prior service cost		-		-		-		-		(1)		(1)		(2)		(2)
Settlement loss		-		-		-		6		-		-		-		-
Net cost	$	1	$	1	$	1	$	8	$	2	$	1	$	6	$	6

The Company funds its domestic qualified pension plans at least at the minimum amount required by the Pension Protection Act of 2006. For the nine months ended September 30, 2015, the Company made pension contributions of $5 million. For the remainder of 2015, the Company isexpecting to make no additional contributions.