Employee Retirement Plans

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2019

The following table summarizes the components of our net retirement cost:



	Three Months Ended September 30,						Nine Months Ended September 30,
	2019			2018			2019			2018
	(in millions)
Expense Components
Service cost	$	—		$	—		$	0.1		$	0.1
Interest	5.0			4.6			14.8			13.7
Expected return on plan assets	(5.8		)	(6.9		)	(17.3		)	(20.6		)
Amortization of actuarial loss	1.2			1.3			3.4			3.6
Net periodic benefit cost	0.4			(1.0		)	1.0			(3.2		)
Profit sharing	3.1			2.6			8.3			7.6
Net expense	$	3.5		$	1.6		$	9.3		$	4.4

We had no contributions to our defined benefit pension plans for the three months ended September 30, 2019. We contributed $0.2 million to our defined benefit pension plans for the nine months ended September 30, 2019. We contributed $28.0 million and $31.7 million to our defined benefit pension plans for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2018, respectively. We do not expect any further contributions to our defined benefit pension plans in 2019. The non-service cost components of net periodic benefit cost in the table above are included in other, net (income) expense in our Consolidated Statements of Operations.

Planned Pension Plan Termination

On September 4, 2019, our Board of Directors approved the termination of the Trinity Industries, Inc. Consolidated Pension Plan (the "Pension Plan"), effective December 31, 2019. Except for retirees currently receiving payments under the Pension Plan, participants will have the choice of receiving a single lump sum payment or an annuity from a highly-rated insurance company that will pay and administer future benefit payments. The Pension Plan is expected to be settled between late 2020 and early 2021, subject to required governmental approvals, and would then result in the Company no longer having any remaining funded pension plan obligations.

Upon settlement, we expect to recognize pre-tax pension settlement charges totaling between $145 million and $195 million. This range includes: (1) a non-cash charge for the recognition of all pre-tax actuarial losses accumulated in AOCL, which totaled approximately $140.4 million ($107.2 million, net of tax) as of December 31, 2018; and (2) a potential additional cash contribution to settle all of the Pension Plan’s obligations, which is not expected to exceed $25 million. The actual amount of the settlement charges and any potential cash contribution will depend on interest rates, Pension Plan asset returns, the lump-sum election rate, and other factors.