COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES

Leases

We lease certain office facilities, certain funeral homes and equipment under operating leases with original terms ranging from one to twelve years. Certain of these leases provide for an annual rent adjustment and contain options for renewal. Rent expense totaled $6.5 million, $6.1 million and $6.1 million for the years ended December 31, 2015, 2016 and 2017, respectively. Assets acquired under capital leases are included in property, plant and equipment in our accompanying Consolidated Balance Sheets in the amount of $2.7 million in 2016 and $6.6 million in 2017, net of accumulated depreciation. Capital lease obligations are included in current and long-term debt as indicated below. At December 31, 2017, future minimum lease payments under non-cancelable lease agreements were as follows (in thousands):



	Future Minimum Lease Payments
	Operating Leases		Capital Leases
Years ending December 31,
2018	$	3,441	$	842
2019	3,056		817
2020	2,521		771
2021	2,155		779
2022	303		803
Thereafter	586		7,818
Total future minimum lease payments	$	12,062	$	11,830
Less: amount representing interest (rates ranging from 7.0% to 11.5%)			(5,145		)
Less: current portion of obligations under capital leases			(324		)
Long-term obligations under capital leases			$	6,361

Non-Compete, Consulting and Employment Agreements

We have various non-compete agreements with former owners and employees. These agreements are generally for one to ten years and provide for periodic future payments over the term of the agreements.

We have various consulting agreements with former owners of businesses we have acquired. Payments for such agreements are generally not made in advance. These agreements are generally for one to ten years and provide for bi-weekly or monthly payments.

We have employment agreements with certain of our executive officers and senior leadership. These agreements are generally for three or four years and provide for participation in various incentive compensation arrangements. These agreements automatically renew on an annual basis after their initial term has expired.

At December 31, 2017, the maximum estimated future cash commitments under these agreements with remaining commitment terms, and with original terms of more than one year, are as follows (in thousands):



	Non-Compete		Consulting		Employment ^(a)		Total
Years ending December 31,
2018	$	1,745	$	907	$	2,020	$	4,672
2019	1,564		592		1,000		3,156
2020	1,324		421		1,000		2,745
2021	1,217		328		244		1,789
2022	837		118		—		955
Thereafter	1,360		—		—		1,360
	$	8,047	$	2,366	$	4,264	$	14,677




(a)	Melvin C. Payne, our Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, has an employment agreement that renews for one additional year on each anniversary of the effective date, such that at any given time between three and four years remain in the term of the agreement.

401(K) Plan

We sponsor a defined contribution plan (401K) for the benefit of our employees. Matching contributions and plan administrative expenses totaled $1.7 million, $1.8 million and $1.9 million for 2015, 2016 and 2017, respectively. We do not offer any post-retirement or post-employment benefits.

Other Commitments

Effective April 30, 2016, we terminated an agreement to outsource the processing of transactions for our cemetery business and certain accounting activities. At that time, all transaction processing returned in-house and we retained most of the personnel of the service provider that resided in our home office. We believe that the costs associated with performing these formerly outsourced activities internally should, for the foreseeable future, be less than the costs we incurred under the outsourcing arrangement. For the years ended December 31, 2015 and 2016, we incurred costs of approximately $1.9 million and $0.9 million, respectively, for services rendered under this agreement, of which we paid approximately $1.0 million and $0.6 million, respectively, with the remainder paid by the Preneed cemetery trust investments portfolio.

Litigation

We are a party to various litigation matters and proceedings. For each of our outstanding legal matters, we evaluate the merits of the case, our exposure to the matter, possible legal or settlement strategies, and the likelihood of an unfavorable outcome. If we determine that an unfavorable outcome is probable and can be reasonably estimated, we establish the necessary accruals. We hold certain insurance policies that may reduce cash outflows with respect to an adverse outcome of certain of these litigation matters.