Employee Benefits

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2016

Note 20: Employee Benefits

The Company has a retirement savings 401(k) plan in which substantially all employees may participate. The contributions are discretionary and determined annually. The Company matches employees' contributions at the following rates: 100 percent of participant contributions up to 4% and 50 percent of participant contributions from 5-6%, not to exceed a maximum of 5% of their compensation. The Company’s expense for the plan was $938,000, $810,000 and $739,000 for 2016, 2015 and 2014, respectively.

The Company has an executive benefit plan and deferred compensation arrangements for the benefit of certain officers. The Company also has deferred compensation arrangements with certain directors whereby, in lieu of previously receiving fees, the directors or their beneficiaries will be paid benefits for an established period following the director’s retirement or death. These arrangements are informally funded by life insurance contracts which have been purchased by the Company. The Company records a liability for these vested benefits based on the present value of future payments. The Company’s expense for the plan was $676,000, $669,000 and $730,000 for 2016, 2015 and 2014, respectively.

The Company has an ESOP covering substantially all of its employees. During 2013, the ESOP reached maturity and the last of the shares were allocated in early 2014. At December 31, 2016 and 2015, the Company had no unearned ESOP shares. Shares were released to participants proportionately as ESOP debt was repaid. The following table provides information on ESOP shares at December 31:



	2016	2015	2014
Allocated shares	403,649	417,848	417,848