Retirement and Other Employee Benefits

The components of net periodic benefit (gain) cost for the Company’s qualified pension benefits plan, nonqualified pension benefits plan and retirement health benefits plan for the three and six months ended June 30, 2016 and 2015 were as follows:



	Qualified Pension Benefits									Nonqualified Pension Benefits (1)					Retirement Health Benefits
	For the Three Months Ended June 30,									For the Three Months Ended June 30,					For the Three Months Ended June 30,
	2016 Plan 1			2016 Plan 2			2015			2016			2015		2016			2015
Service cost	$	—		$	—		$	9,750		$	100		$	1,125	$	—		$	625
Interest cost	3,400			3,500			9,050			925			1,350		875			950
Expected return on plan assets	(7,800		)	(5,950		)	(13,725		)	—			—		(750		)	(825		)
Amortization of prior service cost	—			—			—			—			200		—			(225		)
Amortization of net loss	—			325			3,325			300			725		—			—
Curtailment/settlement charge	—			—			—			—			400		—			—
Net periodic benefit (gain) cost	$	(4,400	)	$	(2,125	)	$	8,400		$	1,325		$	3,800	$	125		$	525

	Qualified Pension Benefits									Nonqualified Pension Benefits (1)					Retirement Health Benefits
	For the Six Months Ended June 30,									For the Six Months Ended June 30,					For the Six Months Ended June 30,
	2016 Plan 1			2016 Plan 2			2015			2016			2015		2016			2015
Service cost	$	—		$	—		$	19,500		$	200		$	2,250	$	—		$	1,250
Interest cost	6,800			7,000			18,100			1,850			2,700		1,750			1,900
Expected return on plan assets	(15,600		)	(11,900		)	(27,450		)	—			—		(1,500		)	(1,650		)
Amortization of prior service cost	—			—			—			—			400		—			(450		)
Amortization of net loss	—			650			6,650			600			1,450		—			—
Curtailment/settlement (gain) charge	(23,057		)	—			—			(2,285		)	800		(4,236		)	—
Net periodic benefit (gain) cost	$	(31,857	)	$	(4,250	)	$	16,800		$	365		$	7,600	$	(3,986	)	$	1,050


(1)	The Company’s nonqualified plan is unfunded.

Effective January 1, 2014, the Assurant Pension Plan (the "Plan"), Assurant Executive Pension Plan and Assurant Supplemental Executive Retirement Plan ("SERP") were closed to new hires. Effective January 1, 2016, the Plan was amended and split into two separate plans, the Assurant Pension Plan No. 1 (Plan No. 1) and the Assurant Pension Plan No. 2 (Plan No. 2). Plan No. 2 generally includes a subset of the terminated vested population and the total population who commenced distribution of their accrued benefit prior to January 1, 2016. Plan No. 1 generally covers all other eligible employees (including the active population as of January 1, 2016, the remainder of the terminated vested population and all Puerto Rico participants). Assets for both plans will remain in the Assurant, Inc. Pension Plan Trust.

Effective March 1, 2016, the Plan, the Assurant Executive Pension Plan, the SERP and the Retiree Medical Plan were amended such that no additional benefits will be earned after February 29, 2016. In connection with this amendment, the Company recorded a non-cash, curtailment gain of $29,578 in the first quarter 2016, which is included in the gain on pension plan curtailment caption in the consolidated statements of operations.

Also as a result of the curtailment, the Plan's funded status increased to $33,353 (based on the fair value of the assets compared to the accumulated benefit obligation) at June 30, 2016 from $(51,973) (based on the fair value of the assets compared to the projected benefit obligation) at December 31, 2015. This equates to a 104% and 94% funded status at June 30, 2016 and December 31, 2015, respectively. During the first six months of 2016, no cash was contributed to the Plan. Due to the Plan's current funded status, no additional cash is expected to be contributed to the Plan over the remainder of 2016.

During the first quarter of 2016, the Company announced that it will make a special, one-time contribution of three percent of eligible pay into the defined contribution plan for all active employees as of December 31, 2016. Employees whose employment ends between March 1 and December 30, 2016 due to death, total disability, retirement (as defined in the Plan) or as part of an involuntary termination without cause initiated by the Company are also eligible for this contribution. The Company had $11,540 accrued in connection with this special, one-time contribution as of June 30, 2016.