Employee Benefit Plans

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2020

Compensation And Retirement Disclosure [Abstract]

Employee Benefit Plans

19. Employee Benefit Plans

401(k) Plan

Employees of Premier are eligible to participate in the Premier Financial Corp. 401(k) Employee Savings Plan (the “Premier 401(k)”) if they meet certain age and service requirements. Under the Premier 401(k), Premier matches 100% of the participants’ contributions up to 3% of compensation and then 50% of the participants’ contributions for the next 2% of compensation. The Premier 401(k) also provides for a discretionary Premier contribution in addition to the Premier matching contribution. Premier matching contributions totaled $2.5 million, $1.4 million and $1.3 million for the years ended December 31, 2020, 2019 and 2018, respectively. There were no discretionary contributions in any of those years.

Group Life Plan

On June 30, 2010, the Bank adopted the First Federal Bank of the Midwest Executive Group Life Plan – Post Separation (the “Group Life Plan”) in which various employees, including the Company’s named executive officers, may participate. Under the terms of the Group Life Plan, the Bank will purchase and own life insurance policies covering the lives of employees selected by the Board of Directors of the Bank as participants. There was $40,000, $60,000 and $38,000 of expense recorded for the years ended December 31, 2020, 2019 and 2018, respectively, with a liability of $1.8 million and $1.8 million for future benefits recorded at December 31, 2020 and 2019, respectively.

Deferred Compensation

The deferred compensation plan covers all directors and certain employees that elect to participate.  Under the plan, the Company pays each participant, or their beneficiary, the amount of fees deferred plus interest over a defined time period.  In the fourth quarter of 2018, the stock market declined significantly resulting in a significant decline in the value of the assets and liabilities of the deferred compensation plan and an accounting correction in the deferred compensation plan was recognized.  The deferred compensation plan has approximately $8.2 and $6.8 million in assets and liabilities, respectively, as of December 31, 2020, which are matched in terms of investment elections.  As of December 31, 2019, the deferred compensation plan had approximately $6.9 and $5.5 million in assets and liabilities, respectively, which were matched in terms of investment elections.  Every year, other noninterest income and other noninterest expense reflects the changes in fair value of the underlying investments in the assets and liabilities, respectively.  The Company made an accounting correction in 2018, which was expected to minimize any net impact to earnings from the deferred compensation plan going forward.  This accounting correction was deemed immaterial and resulted in a one-time reduction to other noninterest expense of $806,000, including a $636,000 adjustment to equity for the phantom stock elections within the plan, and a $170,000 adjustment for the tax liability, as of December 31, 2018.  The phantom shares are carried at cost in equity and will be treated as outstanding shares for earnings per share calculations. The net expense (income) recorded for the deferred compensation plan, excluding the one-time accounting correction, for each of the last three years was ($11,000), $85,000 and $15,000 in 2020, 2019 and 2018, respectively.

As a part of the Merger, Premier assumed the United Community Financial Corp. Deferred Compensation Plan.  This is an unfunded plan for a select group of key management including named executive officers.  The deferred compensation plan has approximately $1.9 million in both assets and liabilities as of December 31, 2020.  As of December 31, 2020, this plan has been frozen.  Participants can choose to receive a lump sum payout or elect to receive installments for up to 11 years once they are eligible to withdraw funds.