Pension plans

ACE provides pension benefits to eligible employees and their dependents through various defined contribution plans and defined benefit plans sponsored by ACE. The defined contribution plans include a capital accumulation plan (401(k)) in the U.S. The defined benefit plans consist of various plans offered in certain jurisdictions primarily outside of the U.S. and Bermuda.

Defined contribution plans (including 401(k))

Under these plans, employees' contributions may be supplemented by ACE matching contributions based on the level of employee contribution. These contributions are invested at the election of each employee in one or more of several investment portfolios offered by a third-party investment advisor. Expenses for these plans totaled $119 million, $111 million, and $99 million for the years ended December 31, 2014, 2013, and 2012, respectively.

Defined benefit plans

We maintain non-contributory defined benefit plans that cover certain employees, principally located in Europe, Asia, and Mexico. We also provide a defined benefit plan to certain U.S.-based employees as a result of our acquisition of Penn Millers. We account for pension benefits using the accrual method. Benefits under these plans are based on employees' years of service and compensation during final years of service. All underlying defined benefit plans are subject to periodic actuarial valuation by qualified local actuarial firms using actuarial models in calculating the pension expense and liability for each plan. We use December 31 as the measurement date for our defined benefit pension plans.

Components of accrued pension liability (included in Accounts payable, accrued expenses, and other liabilities in the consolidated balance sheets):



	December 31		December 31
(in millions of U.S dollars)	2014		2013
Fair value of plan assets	$	588	$	566
Projected benefit obligation	594		591
Accrued pension liability	$	6	$	25

The defined benefit pension plan contribution for 2015 is expected to be $4 million. The estimated net actuarial loss for the defined benefit pension plans that will be amortized from AOCI into net benefit costs over the next year is $2 million.

Benefit payments were $24 million and $26 million for the years ended December 31, 2014 and 2013, respectively. Expected future payments are as follows:



For the year ending December 31
(in millions of U.S dollars)
2015	$	28
2016	21
2017	22
2018	25
2019	27
2020–2024	135