Postretirement Benefits

6 Months Ended

Jun. 30, 2023

Retirement Benefits [Abstract]

Postretirement Benefits

Postretirement Benefits

Pension plans

Our pension plans consist of a noncontributory defined benefit pension plan covering substantially all employees and an unfunded supplemental employee retirement plan ("SERP") for certain members of executive and senior management. Although we are the sponsor of these postretirement plans and record the funded status of these plans, the Exchange and its subsidiaries reimburse us, or are reimbursed for, their allocated share of pension cost or income, respectively. These reimbursements represent pension benefits for employees performing administrative services and an allocated share of plan (income) cost for employees in departments that support the administrative functions. As of June 30, 2023, approximately 60% of the annual defined benefit pension income and 36% of the annual SERP cost was reimbursed to and from, respectively, the Exchange and its subsidiaries.

Our funding policy is generally to contribute an amount equal to the greater of the target normal cost for the plan year, or the amount necessary to fund the plan to 100%. Accordingly, we expect to contribute an estimated $95 million during the third quarter of 2023. Actual contributions may vary from the current estimate depending on changes in assumptions, regulatory requirements and funding decisions, or due to future plan changes.

Pension plan (income) cost includes the following components:

	Three months ended June 30,				Six months ended June 30,
(in thousands)	2023		2022		2023		2022
Service cost for benefits earned	$	7,191	$	12,561	$	14,382	$	25,121
Interest cost on benefit obligation	12,548		9,941		25,096		19,882
Expected return on plan assets	(17,217)		(13,639)		(34,435)		(27,278)
Prior service cost amortization	361		360		723		721
Net actuarial (gain) loss amortization	(3,832)		1,830		(7,665)		3,660
Pension plan (income) cost (1)	$	(949)	$	11,053	$	(1,899)	$	22,106

(1)Pension plan (income) cost represents plan (income) cost before reimbursements between Indemnity and the Exchange and its subsidiaries. The components of pension plan (income) cost other than the service cost components are included in the line item "Other income" in the Statements of Operations, net of reimbursements between Indemnity and the Exchange and its subsidiaries.