Employee and Agent Benefits

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2018

Employee and Agent Benefits

Employee and Agent Benefits

8. 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
	March 31,				March 31,
	2018		2017		2018		2017
	(in millions)
Service cost	$	18.3	$	16.8	$	—	$	—
Interest cost	29.9		31.1		0.9		1.0
Expected return on plan assets	(39.2)		(36.0)		(8.4)		(6.9)
Amortization of prior service benefit	(0.9)		(0.6)		(3.5)		(8.6)
Recognized net actuarial (gain) loss	16.9		17.0		(0.3)		—
Net periodic benefit cost (income)	$	25.0	$	28.3	$	(11.3)	$	(14.5)

The components of net periodic benefit cost including the service cost component are included in operating expenses on the consolidated statements of operations.

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. It is too early to determine, but we do not anticipate that we will be required to fund a minimum required contribution under ERISA. Regardless, it is possible that we may fund the qualified and nonqualified pension plans in 2018 for a combined total of up to $200.0 million. During the three months ended March 31, 2018, we contributed $35.4 million to these plans.