COMPENSATION PLANS

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2022

The Company offers a defined contribution 401(k) Profit Sharing Plan (the "Plan") which covers substantially all employees who meet certain age and service requirements. The Plan allows employees to make voluntary pre-tax salary deferrals to the Plan. The Company, at its discretion, may elect to make an annual contribution to the Plan equal to a percentage of each participating employee’s salary. Such discretionary contributions must be approved by the Company’s board of directors. Employees are fully vested in the Company contributions after six years of service. In 2022 and 2021, the Company made total contributions of $1.9 million and $1.4 million to the Plan, respectively.

Colony Bank, the wholly-owned subsidiary, has deferred compensation plans covering certain former directors and certain officers choosing to participate through individual deferred compensation contracts. In accordance with terms of the contracts, the Bank is committed to pay the participant’s deferred compensation over a specified number of years, beginning at age 65. In the event of a participant’s death before age 65, payments are made to the participant’s named beneficiary over a specified number of years, beginning on the first day of the month following the death of the participant.

Liabilities accrued under the plans totaled $1.1 million and $1.2 million as of December 31, 2022 and 2021, respectively. Benefits accrued monthly under the contracts totaled $39,000 in 2022 and $43,000 in 2021. Payments were $151,000 in 2022 and $136,000 in 2021.

The Company has purchased life insurance policies on the plans’ participants and uses the cash flow from these policies to partially fund the plan. There was no fee income recognized in 2022 and 2021.

The Company awards restricted shares of the Company's common stock to various bank employees with a grant price equal to the market price of the Company's common stock on the grant date. The restricted shares vest in equal installments over three years, subject to continued service through each applicable vesting date, or earlier upon the occurrence of a change in control. With the restricted stock, there will be no cash consideration to the Company for the shares. The employees will have the right to vote all shares subject to such grant and receive all dividends with respect to such shares, whether or not the shares have vested.

The following table presents the outstanding balance for restricted stock awards as of December 31, 2022 and 2021.


	Quantity	Weighted-Average Grant Date Fair Value
Outstanding at December 31, 2020	1,884	$	17.73
Granted	187,600	17.93
Vested	(1,884)	17.73
Forfeited	(300)	17.93
Outstanding at December 31, 2021	187,300	17.93
Granted	139,720	16.11
Vested	(71,154)	17.93
Forfeited	(9,000)	17.36
Outstanding at December 31, 2022	246,866	16.92

Compensation expense for restricted stock is based on the market price of the Company stock at the time of the grant and amortized on a straight-line basis over the vesting period. Compensation expense recognized for the years ended December 31, 2022 and 2021 was $1.7 million and $599,000, respectively. Total compensation expense unrecognized for the restricted shares granted for the year ended December 31, 2022 was $3.1 million, which is expected to be recognized over a weighted average period of 1.9 years.