Note 18 - Defined Benefit Plan

6 Months Ended

Jun. 30, 2022

Notes to Financial Statements

Defined Benefit Plan [Text Block]

18. Defined Benefit Plan

As part of the Merger, the Company assumed sponsorship of Weingarten’s noncontributory qualified cash balance retirement plan (“the Benefit Plan”). At the date of the Merger, the Benefit Plan was frozen and as a result no new benefits will be offered to employees who were not already part of the Benefit Plan on the Merger date. The Benefit Plan was terminated as of December 31, 2021. In connection with the termination, the Benefit Plan maintains a separate account for each participant. Annual additions to each participant’s account includes an interest credit of 4.5% as the service credit was suspended upon the freeze. The participant data used in determining the liabilities and costs for the Benefit Plan was determined as of June 30, 2022.

The following table summarizes the measurement changes in the Benefit Plan’s projected benefit obligation, plan assets and funded status, as well as the components of net periodic benefit costs, including key assumptions, from January 1, 2022 through June 30, 2022 (in thousands):

	2022
Change in Projected Benefit Obligation:
Benefit obligation at January 1	$	36,995
Interest cost		435
Actuarial gain		(6,028	)
Benefit payments		(1,093	)
Benefit obligation at June 30	$	30,309
Change in Plan Assets:
Fair value of plan assets at January 1	$	43,653
Actual return on plan assets		(1,343	)
Benefit payments		(1,093	)
Fair value of plan assets at June 30	$	41,217
Funded status at June 30 (included in Other assets)	$	10,908
Accumulated benefit obligation	$	30,309
Net gain recognized in other comprehensive income	$	6,476

The weighted-average assumptions used to determine the benefit obligation as of June 30, 2022 are as follows:

Discount rate	4.23	%
Interest credit rate for cash balance plan	4.50	%

The selection of the discount rate is made after comparison to yields based on cash investments. The long-term rate of return is a composite rate for the Benefit Plan. It is derived as the sum of the percentages invested in each principal asset class included in the portfolio multiplied by their respective expected rates of return. The Company considered the historical returns and the future expectations for returns for each asset class, as well as the target asset allocation of the Benefit Plan portfolio. This analysis resulted in the selection of 1.00% as the long-term rate of return assumption for the six months ended June 30, 2022.

No contributions have been made and none are anticipated to be made to the Benefit Plan during 2022.