XML 37 R22.htm IDEA: XBRL DOCUMENT

Employee Benefit Plans

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2020

Note 13. Employee Benefit Plans

Employees’ Stock Ownership Plan

Prior to 2014, the First Busey ESOP was available to all full-time employees who met certain age and length of service requirements. Effective in 2014, the ESOP was frozen, all shares were fully vested, and there were no new contributions under the ESOP. On October 31, 2019, First Busey’s board of directors elected to terminate the ESOP and filed a determination letter with the Internal Revenue Service on February 10, 2020. During 2020, the ESOP was terminated, and all plan assets were distributed.

Shares held in the ESOP are summarized in the table below (dollars in thousands):


	As of December 31, 2020				As of December 31, 2019
	Shares		Fair Value		Shares		Fair Value
Shares held in the ESOP:
Acquired prior to December 31, 1992		—	$	—		113,866	$	3,131
Acquired after December 31, 1992		—		—		36,719		1,010
Total shares held in the ESOP		—	$	—		150,585	$	4,141

Profit Sharing Plan

All full-time employees who meet certain age and service requirements are eligible to participate in the Company's profit-sharing plan. Contributions and related expenses, if any, are determined solely by the boards of directors of the Company and its subsidiaries, and in no case may annual contributions be greater than the amounts deductible for federal income tax purposes for that year.

The rights of profit-sharing plan participants vest ratably over a five-year period, except for the 401(k) match, which vests immediately. Expenses related to the employee benefit plans were $6.0 million, $5.8 million, and $5.4 million for the years ended December 31, 2020, 2019, and 2018, respectively.

Deferred Compensation Plan

The Company previously sponsored deferred compensation plans for executive officers for deferral of compensation. Effective March 28, 2018, the deferred compensation plan was terminated, and account balances were distributed in April 2019.

There was no deferred compensation liability balance as of December 31, 2020. The Company’s 2019 deferred compensation liability was impacted by our 2019 acquisition of Banc Ed, resulting in a balance of $0.4 million as of December 31, 2019, which was settled in January 2020.

There was no deferred compensation expense for the year ended December 31, 2020. Deferred compensation expense reported for the years ended December 31, 2019 and 2018, was $0.1 million and $0.3 million, respectively.