We have a tax-qualified employee stock ownership plan (the “ESOP”) that is a noncontributory plan that covers certain salaried and hourly employees of the Company. The amount of the annual contribution is at the discretion of the Board, except that the minimum amount must be sufficient to enable the ESOP trust to meet its current obligations. The Company ceased making annual contributions to the ESOP after the 2018 plan year.

Effective in 1998, the Reliance Steel & Aluminum Co. Master 401(k) Plan (the “Master Plan”) was established, which combined several of the various 401(k) and profit-sharing plans of the Company and its subsidiaries into one plan. Salaried and certain hourly employees of the Company and its participating subsidiaries are covered under the Master Plan. Eligibility occurs after three months of service and the Company contribution vests at 25% per year. Other 401(k) and profit-sharing plans exist as certain subsidiaries have not merged their plans into the Master Plan as of December 31, 2019.

Effective January 1996, we adopted a Supplemental Executive Retirement Plan (“Reliance SERP”), which is a nonqualified pension plan that provides postretirement pension benefits to certain key officers of the Company. The Reliance SERP is administered by the Compensation Committee of the Board. Benefits are based upon the employees’ earnings. Life insurance policies were purchased for most individuals covered by the Reliance SERP. Separate supplemental executive retirement plans exist for certain wholly owned subsidiaries of the Company (together with the Reliance SERP, the “SERPs”), each of which provides postretirement pension benefits to certain former key employees. All SERPs have been frozen to new participants.

In December 2008, the Reliance Deferred Compensation Plan was established for certain officers and key employees of the Company. Account balances from various compensation plans of subsidiaries were transferred and consolidated into this new deferred compensation plan. The balance in the Reliance Deferred Compensation Plan as of December 31, 2019 and 2018 was $31.4 million and $21.8 million, respectively. The balance of the assets set aside for funding future payouts under the deferred compensation plan amounted to $26.5 million and $21.1 million as of December 31, 2019 and 2018, respectively.

Certain of our union employees participate in plans collectively bargained and maintained by multiple employers and a labor union. We do not recognize on our balance sheet any amounts relating to these plans. For 2019, 2018 and 2017 our contributions to these plans were $5.7 million, $5.4 million and $5.4 million, respectively. Some of the plans we participate in are in endangered, or critical and declining status and have adopted rehabilitation plans. If we were to withdraw our participation from these plans, we would be required to recognize a liability on our balance sheet and the amount could be significant.

We, through certain subsidiaries, maintain qualified defined benefit pension plans for certain of our union employees (the “Defined Benefit Plans”). These plans generally provide benefits of stated amounts for each year of service or provide benefits based on the participant's hourly wage rate and years of service. The plans permit the sponsor, at any time, to amend or terminate the plans subject to union approval, if applicable. Certain of these plans were frozen in previous years.

We use a December 31 measurement date for our plans. The following is a summary of the status of the funding of the SERPs and Defined Benefit Plans:

As of December 31, 2019 and 2018, the following amounts were recognized on the balance sheet:

The accumulated benefit obligation for the SERPs was $42.0 million and $32.5 million as of December 31, 2019 and 2018, respectively. The accumulated benefit obligation for the Defined Benefit Plans was $116.2 million and $96.6 million as of December 31, 2019 and 2018, respectively.

Following are the details of net periodic benefit cost related to the SERPs and Defined Benefit Plans:

Net periodic benefit cost related to the SERPs and Defined Benefit Plans is presented in our statements of income as summarized below:

Employer contributions of $17.5 million are expected during 2020 to the SERPs and $1.8 million to the Defined Benefit Plans.

We have merged our frozen defined benefit pension plans into a single plan (the “Frozen Defined Benefit Plan”) and are proceeding with terminating the plan. Pursuant to the termination, the distribution of plan assets is anticipated to be completed in the second half of 2020. Participants of the Frozen Defined Benefit Plan can elect to receive their accrued benefit either in the form of a lump sum payment or an annuity contract that we purchase from an insurance company. The plan termination in 2020 is expected to result in plan settlement charges in an amount that will be determined based on market conditions when the distributions are made. As such, we are currently unable to reasonably estimate the timing or amount of the settlement charges. The Frozen Defined Benefit Plan had a projected benefit obligation of $49.8 million, plan assets with a fair value of $47.8 million and an accumulated comprehensive loss of $16.3 million as of December 31, 2019.

The weighted-average asset allocations of our Defined Benefit Plans by asset category are as follows:

Plan assets are invested in various asset classes that are expected to produce a sufficient level of diversification and investment return over the long term. Pursuant to the termination of the Frozen Defined Benefit Plan, 100% of the investments held by the Frozen Defined Plan were comprised of debt securities and cash and cash equivalents. The investment goal is a return on assets that is at least equal to the assumed actuarial rate of return over the long-term within reasonable and prudent levels of risk. We establish our estimated long-term return on plan assets assumption considering various factors including the targeted asset allocation percentages, historic returns and expected future returns.

The fair value measurements of our Defined Benefit Plan assets fall within the following levels of the fair value hierarchy as of December 31, 2019 and 2018:

(1)	Comprised primarily of securities of large domestic and foreign companies. Valued at the closing price reported on the active market on which the individual securities are traded.

(2)	Valued using a combination of inputs including: benchmark yields, reported trades, broker/dealer quotes, issuer spreads, two-sided markets, benchmark securities, bids, offers and reference data.

(3)	Level 1 assets are comprised of exchange traded funds, money market funds, and stock and bond funds. These assets are valued at closing price for exchange traded funds and NAV for open-end and closed-end mutual funds.

(4)

Certain investments, including common collective trusts, are measured at fair value using the NAV practical expedient. The fair value of these investments are excluded from the fair value hierarchy and are presented in the tables above to permit reconciliation of the investments classified within the fair value hierarchy to the total investments at fair value.

Summary Disclosures—SERPs and Defined Benefit Plans

The following is a summary of benefit payments under the SERPs and Defined Benefit Plans, which reflect expected future employee service, as appropriate, expected to be paid in the periods indicated:


			Defined
	SERPs		Benefit Plans
		(in millions)
2020	$	17.5	$	52.0
2021		1.1		2.1
2022		10.6		2.3
2023		1.0		2.5
2024		1.0		2.7
2025-2029		4.2		16.0

Supplemental Bonus Plan

In connection with the acquisition of EMJ in April 2006, Reliance assumed the obligation resulting from EMJ’s settlement with the U.S. Department of Labor to contribute 258,006 shares of Reliance common stock to EMJ’s Supplemental Bonus Plan, a phantom stock bonus plan supplementing the EMJ Retirement Savings Plan. As of December 31, 2019, the remaining obligation to the EMJ Supplemental Bonus Plan consisted of the cash equivalent of 64,362 shares of Reliance common stock with a fair value of $7.7 million. The adjustments to reflect this obligation at fair value based on the closing price of our common stock at the end of each reporting period are included in Warehouse, delivery, selling, general and administrative expense. The expense (income) from mark to market adjustments to this obligation in each of the years ended December 31, 2019, 2018 and 2017 amounted to $3.3 million, ($0.8) million and $0.6 million, respectively. This obligation will be satisfied by future cash payments to participants upon their termination of employment.

Contributions to Reliance Sponsored Retirement Plans

Our expense for Reliance-sponsored retirement plans was as follows:


	Year Ended December 31,
	2019		2018		2017
	(in millions)
Master Plan	$	22.7	$	28.1	$	25.0
Other defined contribution plans		9.6		9.4		9.0
ESOP		—		1.9		1.8
Reliance Deferred Compensation Plan		5.0		0.9		0.9
SERPs		3.3		2.9		6.5
Defined Benefit Plans		1.5		1.8		2.7
	$	42.1	$	45.0	$	45.9