Employee and Agent Benefits

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2015

Employee and Agent Benefits

Employee and Agent Benefits

7. Employee and Agent Benefits

Components of Net Periodic Benefit Cost

							Other postretirement
	Pension benefits						benefits
	For the three months ended						For the three months ended
	September 30,						September 30,
	2015			2014			2015			2014
	(in millions)
Service cost	$	15.8		$	13.5		$	0.5		$	0.4
Interest cost	30.0			29.2			1.6			1.7
Expected return on plan assets	(40.2		)	(33.0		)	(8.5		)	(8.2		)
Amortization of prior service benefit	(0.5		)	(1.0		)	(4.6		)	(5.0		)
Recognized net actuarial (gain) loss	25.7			12.5			(0.3		)	(1.0		)
Net periodic benefit cost (income)	$	30.8		$	21.2		$	(11.3	)	$	(12.1	)

							Other postretirement
	Pension benefits						benefits
	For the nine months ended						For the nine months ended
	September 30,						September 30,
	2015			2014			2015			2014
	(in millions)
Service cost	$	47.4		$	40.5		$	1.5		$	1.1
Interest cost	90.2			87.8			4.9			5.0
Expected return on plan assets	(120.5		)	(99.0		)	(25.5		)	(24.5		)
Amortization of prior service benefit	(1.4		)	(3.4		)	(13.8		)	(15.2		)
Recognized net actuarial (gain) loss	76.8			37.8			(0.7		)	(2.7		)
Net periodic benefit cost (income)	$	92.5		$	63.7		$	(33.6	)	$	(36.3	)

Contributions

Our funding policy for our qualified pension plan is to fund the plan annually in an amount at least equal to the minimum annual contribution required under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (“ERISA”) and, generally, not greater than the maximum amount that can be deducted for federal income tax purposes. The minimum annual contribution for 2015 will be zero so we will not be required to fund our qualified pension plan during 2015. However, it is possible that we may fund the qualified and nonqualified pension plans in 2015 for a combined total of up to $150.0 million. During the three and nine months ended September 30, 2015, we contributed $25.2 million and $67.8 million to these plans, respectively.