Retirement and Benefit Plans

Our plans consist of noncontributory defined benefit pension plans, contributory defined contribution savings plans, a deferred compensation plan, and a multiemployer health and welfare plan. On March 9, 2015 and May 15, 2015, we made discretionary contributions to our qualified defined benefit pension plan (Pension Plan) of $10.0 million and $40.0 million, respectively. Due to the significant voluntary contributions made (not anticipated in our year end measurement), we elected to remeasure our Pension Plan on May 15, 2015. This resulted in a $69.3 million improvement in the funded status of our Pension Plan, including a $50.0 million increase in the fair value of plan assets due to the discretionary contributions and an actuarial gain of $19.3 million before tax. The actuarial gain was the result of an increase in discount rate from 3.75% at December 31, 2014 to 3.90% at May 15, 2015, as well as better than expected returns on plan assets through May 15, 2015. As a result of the improvement in funded status, we have rebalanced our plan assets to decrease our proportion of equity securities and increase our fixed-income securities consistent with a de-risking glide path established by our Retirement Funds Investment Committee. Therefore, the weighted average expected return on plan assets we will use for the remainder of 2015 in our calculation of net periodic benefit cost is 5.85%, down from 6.15% used for 2015 prior to the May 15, 2015 remeasurement.

The following table presents the pension benefit costs:



	Three Months Ended September 30						Nine Months Ended September 30
	2015			2014			2015			2014
	(thousands)
Service cost	$	12		$	433		$	726		$	1,248
Interest cost	4,808			5,050			14,259			15,130
Expected return on plan assets	(5,844		)	(5,238		)	(16,539		)	(15,764		)
Amortization of actuarial (gain) loss	987			(5		)	3,897			(17		)
Plan settlement loss	—			—			501			—
Net periodic benefit (income) expense	$	(37	)	$	240		$	2,844		$	597

For the remainder of 2015, we estimate net periodic pension income will be insignificant and we expect to amortize $1.0 million of net actuarial loss from accumulated other comprehensive loss.

In March 2015, we contributed company-owned real property to the qualified defined benefit pension plan from one location in our Building Materials Distribution segment. The pension plan obtained an independent appraisal of the property, and based on the appraisal, the plan recorded the contribution at fair value of approximately $3 million.

We are leasing back the contributed property for an initial term of ten years with two five-year extension options and continue to use the property in our distribution operations. Rent payments are made quarterly, with first-year annual rent of $0.2 million and 2% annual escalation rates thereafter. The lease provides us a right of first refusal on any subsequent sale by the pension plan, as well as repurchase options at the end of the initial term and extension periods. The plan engaged an independent fiduciary who negotiated the lease terms and also manages the property on behalf of the plan.

We determined that the contribution of the property does not meet the accounting definition of a plan asset within the scope of Accounting Standards Codification 715, Compensation — Retirement Benefits. Accordingly, the contributed property is not considered a contribution for accounting purposes and, as a result, is not included in plan assets and has no impact on the net pension liability recorded on our Consolidated Balance Sheets. We continue to depreciate the carrying value of the property in our financial statements, and no gain or loss was recognized at the contribution date for accounting purposes. Lease payments are recorded as pension contributions.

In the first nine months of 2015, we contributed $53.7 million in cash to the pension plans, which includes $50 million of discretionary contributions. For the remainder of 2015, we expect to make approximately $0.5 million in additional cash contributions to the pension plans.