EMPLOYEE BENEFITS

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2013

EMPLOYEE BENEFITS [Abstract]

EMPLOYEE BENEFITS

5. EMPLOYEE BENEFITS

Retirement Plan- The Company’s retirement plan is noncontributory and covers substantially all eligible employees. The plan conforms to the provisions of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, as amended, and the Pension Protection Act of 2006, which requires certain funding rules for defined benefit plans. The Company’s policy is to accrue for all pension costs and to fund the maximum amount allowable for tax purposes. Actuarial gains and losses that arise from changes in assumptions concerning future events are amortized over a period that reflects the long-term nature of pension expense used in estimating pension costs.

The Company accounts for its retirement plan in accordance with ASC 715, “Compensation – Retirement Benefits” and ASC 960, “Plan Accounting – Defined Benefit Pension Plans,” which require an employer that is a business entity and sponsors one or more single-employer defined benefit plans to recognize the funded status of a benefit plan in its statement of financial position; recognize as a component of other comprehensive income, net of tax, the gains or losses and prior service costs or credits that arise during the period but are not recognized as components of net periodic benefit cost; measure defined benefit plan assets and obligation as of the date of fiscal year-end statement of financial position (with limited exceptions); and disclose in the notes to financial statements additional information about certain effects of net periodic benefit cost for the next fiscal year that arise from delayed recognition of the gains or losses, prior service costs or credits, and transition asset and obligation. Plan assets and benefit obligations shall be measured as of the date of its statement of financial position and in determining the amount of net periodic benefit cost. The codification also requires an employer to use the same date for the measurement of plan assets as for the statement of condition.

On December 31, 2012, certain provisions of the Company’s retirement plan were changed which affected all participants in this plan and froze the participation of new entrants into the pension plan for all remaining employees in 2012. These changes froze the plan such that no additional pension benefits would accumulate.

The following table presents information concerning net periodic defined benefit pension (income) expense for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2013 and 2012 (in thousands):

	Three Months Ended September 30,						Nine Months Ended September 30,
	2013			2012			2013			2012
Service cost	$	-		$	603		$	-		$	1,809
Interest cost		499			555			1,495			1,664
Expected return on plan assets		(577	)		(527	)		(1,727	)		(1,581	)
Net amortization		62			406			184			1,220
Net periodic benefit (income) expense	$	(16	)	$	1,037		$	(48	)	$	3,112

In December 2012, the Company made an annual minimum contribution of $1 million for the plan year ended September 30, 2013. There was no additional minimum required contribution for the plan year ended September 30, 2013.

Post-Retirement Benefits other than Pension - The Company formerly provided life insurance benefits to employees meeting eligibility requirements. Employees hired after December 31, 1997 were not eligible for retiree life insurance. No other welfare benefits are provided. In the second quarter of 2013, the Company terminated all post-retirement life insurance benefits and recorded a non-recurring gain of $1.7 million as a credit to employee compensation and benefits expense in the Company’s consolidated statements of operations.