20.	Equity Incentive and Employee Benefit Plans

A summary of our equity incentive plans follows. All share amounts have been adjusted for the stock dividends distributed during

2017

and

2016,

as applicable.

Employee Equity Incentive Plans.

Effective

March 2001,

we adopted the M.D.C. Holdings, Inc.

2001

Equity Incentive Plan (the

“2001

Equity Incentive Plan”). Non-qualified option awards previously granted generally vested over periods of up to

seven

years and expire

ten

years after the date of grant. Restricted stock awards generally were granted with vesting terms of up to

five

years. On

March 26, 2011,

the

2001

Equity Incentive Plan terminated and all stock option grants and restricted stock awards outstanding at the time of the plan termination

may

continue to be exercised, or become free of restrictions, in accordance with their terms. A total of

0.9

million

shares of MDC common stock were reserved for issuance under the

2001

Equity Incentive Plan as of

December 31, 2018.

April 27, 2011,

our shareholders approved the M.D.C Holdings, Inc.

2011

Equity Incentive Plan (the

“2011

Equity Incentive Plan”), which provides for the grant of non-qualified stock options, incentive stock options, stock appreciation rights, restricted stock, restricted stock units and other equity awards to employees of the Company. Stock options granted under the

2011

Equity Incentive Plan have an exercise price that is at least equal to the fair market value of our common stock on the date the stock option is granted, generally vest in periods up to

five

years and expire

ten

years after the date of grant. At

December 31, 2018,

a total of

6.6

million shares of MDC common stock were reserved for issuance under the

2011

Equity Incentive Plan, of which

0.7

million shares remained available for grant under this plan as of

December 31, 2018

Director Equity Incentive Plans

. Effective

March 2001,

we adopted the M.D.C. Holdings, Inc. Stock Option Plan for Non-Employee Directors (the

“2001

Director Stock Option Plan”). Each option granted under the Director Stock Option Plan vested immediately and expires

ten

years from the date of grant. The

2001

Director Stock Option Plan terminated on

May 21, 2012

and stock options outstanding at the time of plan termination

may

continue to be exercised in accordance with their terms. A total of

0.2

million

shares of MDC common stock were reserved for issuance under the

2001

Director Stock Option Plan as of

December 31, 2018.

Effective

April 27, 2011,

our shareholders approved the M.D.C. Holdings, Inc.

2011

Stock Option Plan for Non-Employee Directors (the

“2011

Director Stock Option Plan”), which provides for the grant of non-qualified stock options to non-employee directors of the Company. Effective

March 29, 2016,

our shareholders approved an amendment to the

2011

Director Stock Option Plan to provide the non-employee directors with an alternative to elect to receive an award of restricted stock in lieu of a stock option. Pursuant to the

2011

Director Stock Option Plan as amended, on

August 1

of each year, each non-employee director is granted either (

) an option to purchase

25,000

shares of MDC common stock or (

) shares of restricted stock having an expense to the Company that is equivalent to the stock option. Each option granted under the

2011

Director Stock Option Plan vests immediately, becomes exercisable

six

months after grant, and expires

ten

years from the date of grant. The option exercise price must be equal to the fair market value (as defined in the plan) of our common stock on the date of grant of the option. Each restricted stock award granted under the

2011

Director Stock Option Plan vests

seven

months after the grant date. At

December 31, 2018,

a total of

1.0

million shares of MDC common stock were reserved for issuance under the

2011

Director Stock Option Plan and

0.5

million shares remained available for grant under this plan as of

December 31, 2018.

Employee Benefit Plan

. We have a defined contribution plan pursuant to Section

401

(k) of the Internal Revenue Code where each employee

may

elect to make before-tax contributions up to the current tax limits. Effective for

2018

and thereafter, we match employee contributions at a rate of

50%

of the

first

of compensation and, as of

December 31, 2018,

we had accrued

$2.4

million related to the match that is to be contributed in the

first

quarter of

2019

for

2018

activity. At

December 31, 2017,

we had accrued

$2.1

million related to the match that was contributed in the

first

quarter of

2018

for

2017

activity. At

December 31, 2016,

we had accrued

$1.3

million related to the match that was contributed during the

first

quarter of

2017

for

2016

activity.