Employee Retirement Plans

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2020

The following table summarizes the components of our net retirement cost:



	Three Months Ended March 31,
	2020			2019
	(in millions)
Expense Components
Service cost	$	—		$	—
Interest	3.7			4.9
Expected return on plan assets	(5.2		)	(5.7		)
Amortization of actuarial loss	1.5			1.1
Amortization of prior service cost	0.3			—
Net periodic benefit cost	0.3			0.3
Profit sharing	2.7			2.2
Net expense	$	3.0		$	2.5

We contributed $0.3 million and $0.2 million to our defined benefit pension plans for the three months ended March 31, 2020 and 2019, respectively. Total contributions for our defined benefit pension plans in 2020 are expected to be approximately $1.1 million. The non-service cost components of net periodic benefit cost in the table above are included in other, net (income) expense in our Consolidated Statements of Operations.

Planned Pension Plan Termination

On September 4, 2019, our Board of Directors approved the termination of the Trinity Industries, Inc. Consolidated Pension Plan (the "Pension Plan"), effective December 31, 2019. Except for retirees currently receiving payments under the Pension Plan, participants will have the choice of receiving a single lump sum payment or an annuity from a highly-rated insurance company that will pay and administer future benefit payments. The Pension Plan is expected to be settled between late 2020 and early 2021, subject to required governmental approvals, and would then result in the Company no longer having any remaining funded pension plan obligations.

Upon settlement, we expect to recognize pre-tax pension settlement charges totaling between $155 million and $185 million. The settlement charges will be recognized in our Statement of Operations in two phases, with the first charge to be recognized when payments are made to those participants electing to receive a lump sum distribution, and the second charge to be recognized when the annuity contracts are purchased to settle all remaining outstanding pension obligations. The range of settlement charges includes: (1) a non-cash charge for the recognition of all pre-tax actuarial losses accumulated in AOCL related to the Pension Plan, which totaled approximately $170.1 million ($131.2 million, net of tax) as of December 31, 2019; and (2) a potential additional cash contribution to settle all of the Pension Plan’s obligations, which is not expected to exceed $15 million. The actual amount of the settlement charges and any potential cash contribution will depend on interest rates, Pension Plan asset returns, the lump-sum election rate, and other factors.