Postretirement Benefits

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2012

Postretirement Benefits

Postretirement Benefits

Note 10.   Postretirement Benefits

The liabilities for the postretirement plans described in this note are presented in total for all employees of the Erie Insurance Group.  The gross liability for postretirement benefits is presented in the Consolidated Statements of Financial Position as part of other liabilities.  A portion of annual expenses related to our postretirement benefit plans is allocated to related entities within the Erie Insurance Group.

We offer a noncontributory defined benefit pension plan that covers substantially all employees.  This is the largest postretirement benefit plan we offer.  We also offer an unfunded supplemental employee retirement plan (‘SERP’) for certain members of executive and senior management of the Erie Insurance Group.

The components of net periodic benefit cost for our postretirement benefits are as follows:

	Erie Insurance Group
(in millions)	Three months ended March 31,
	2012		2011
Service cost	$ 5		$ 4
Interest cost	6		6
Expected return on plan assets	(7	)	(7	)
Amortization of prior service cost	0		0
Amortization of actuarial loss	3		2
Net periodic benefit cost	$ 7		$ 5