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Employee Benefit Plans
 3 Months Ended
Mar. 31, 2012
Defined Benefit Pension Plans and Defined Benefit Postretirement Plans Disclosure [Abstract]  
Employee Benefit Plans
EMPLOYEE BENEFIT PLANS

The components of net pension expense for the Company’s two defined benefit non-contributory pension plans and certain nonqualified supplemental pension plans were:



Three months ended
March 31,
(in thousands)
2012
2011
Components of net periodic benefit cost:
 
 
Service cost
$
2,632

$
2,293

Interest cost
2,700

2,740

Expected long-term return on assets
(3,563
)
(3,868
)
Actuarial loss
2,099

1,609

Prior service cost amortization
129

124

Net periodic expense
$
3,997

$
2,898



The Company anticipates required contributions of approximately $12.8 million during 2012 to the qualified pension plans. The Company expects sufficient funding credits, as established under Internal Revenue Code Section 430(f), exist to meet the required funding. It is not anticipated that the funded status of the qualified pension plans will fall below statutory thresholds requiring accelerated funding or constraints on benefit levels or plan administration. No additional discretionary contributions are currently expected to be made to the pension plans by the Company during 2012. For the three months ending March 31, 2012, the Company made benefit payments aggregating $2.3 million to retirees from the nonqualified supplemental retirement plans and expects to make additional benefit payments of approximately $0.1 million through the remainder of 2012.

The components of net periodic postretirement benefit expense for the Company’s postretirement benefit plans were:



Three months ended
March 31,
(in thousands)
2012
2011
Components of net periodic benefit cost:
 
 
Service cost
$
463

$
442

Interest cost
1,062

1,111

Expected long-term return on assets
(1,109
)
(1,104
)
Actuarial loss
9

—

Transition amortization
479

479

Net periodic expense
$
904

$
928



For the three months ended March 31, 2012, the Company made contributions aggregating $0.9 million to the postretirement benefit plan. The Company expects to make additional discretionary contributions of approximately $2.7 million to the postretirement benefit plan through the remainder of 2012.