EMPLOYEE BENEFITS

Our qualified and nonqualified defined benefit plans were amended to freeze benefit accruals for all persons entitled to benefits under the plans in 2016. We will continue recording pension expense related to these plans, primarily representing interest costs on the accumulated benefit obligation and amortization of actuarial losses accumulated in the plans, as well as income from expected investment returns on pension assets. Since the plans have been frozen, no service costs are included in net periodic pension expense.

At the end of the third quarter of 2018, we made a $20.4 million contribution to our qualified defined benefit plan. The investment policy for the Plan now is 85 percent to 95 percent fixed income and 5 percent to 15 percent equity and cash, which is a shift from 50 percent to 70 percent in equities and 30 percent to 50 percent fixed income and cash in 2018. The expected long-term rate of return on plan assets is 4.80 percent compared to 7.50 percent in prior periods.

The pension contribution was deducted on our 2017 Consolidated Federal Income Tax Return and we recognized a return to provision discrete tax benefit of $2.9 million due to the decrease in the federal statutory rate of 35 percent to 21 percent resulting from tax legislation in December 2017.

The following table summarizes the components of net periodic pension cost for the periods presented:



	Three Months Ended March 31,
(dollars in thousands)	2019				2018
Components of Net Periodic Pension Cost
Interest cost on projected benefit obligation		$	989			$	967
Expected return on plan assets		(1,180		)		(1,567		)
Net amortization		394				544
Net Periodic Pension Expense		$	203			$	(56	)

The components of net periodic pension expense are included in salaries and employee benefits on the Consolidated Statements of Comprehensive Income.