Pension And Other Post-Retirement Benefits

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2012

Pension And Other Post-Retirement Benefits [Abstract]

Pension And Other Post-Retirement Benefits

NOTE 11. PENSION AND OTHER POST-RETIREMENT BENEFITS

Moody's maintains funded and unfunded noncontributory Defined Benefit Pension Plans. The U.S. DBPPs provide defined benefits using a cash balance formula based on years of service and career average salary for its employees or final average pay for selected executives. The Company also provides certain healthcare and life insurance benefits for retired U.S. employees. The post-retirement healthcare plans are contributory with participants' contributions adjusted annually; the life insurance plans are noncontributory. Moody's funded and unfunded U.S. pension plans, the U.S. post-retirement healthcare plans and the U.S. post-retirement life insurance plans are collectively referred to herein as the Post-Retirement Plans.

Effective January 1, 2008, the Company no longer offers DBPPs to U.S. employees hired or rehired on or after January 1, 2008. New U.S. employees will instead receive a retirement contribution of similar benefit value under the Company's Profit Participation Plan. Current participants of the Company's DBPPs continue to accrue benefits based on existing plan formulas.

The components of net periodic benefit expense related to the Post-Retirement Plans are as follows:

	Three Months Ended March 31,
	Pension Plans						Other Post-Retirement Plans
	2012			2011			2012		2011
Components of net periodic expense
Service cost	$	4.5		$	3.7		$	0.3	$	0.3
Interest cost		3.2			3.2			0.2		0.2
Expected return on plan assets		(3.1	)		(3.0	)		—		—
Amortization of net actuarial loss from earlier periods		2.5			1.1			0.1		—
Amortization of net prior service costs from earlier periods		0.2			0.2			—		—
Net periodic expense	$	7.3		$	5.2		$	0.6	$	0.5

The Company made payments of $0.4 million related to its unfunded U.S. DBPPs and $0.2 million to its U.S. other post-retirement plans, respectively, during the three months ended March 31, 2012. In April 2012, the Company made a contribution of approximately $18 million to its funded pension plan and anticipates making additional payments of $2.6 million related to its unfunded U.S. DBPPs and $0.6 million to its U.S. other post-retirement plans during the remainder of 2012.