NOTE M — RETIREMENT PLANS

401(k) plan

The Company maintains a defined contribution retirement plan for eligible employees under Section 401(k) of the Internal Revenue Code. Participants can make voluntary contributions up to the Internal Revenue Service limit of $18,000 ($24,000 for employees 50 years or over) for 2016. Effective January 1, 2009, the Company suspended its matching contribution as an expense savings measure. The Company’s United Kingdom-based subsidiaries also maintain defined contribution pension plans.

Retirement benefit obligations

The Company assumed retirement benefit obligations, which are paid to certain former executives of a business acquired in 2006. These obligations under the agreements with these former executives are unfunded and amounted to $6.9 million at December 31, 2016 and $6.5 million at December 31, 2015.

The discount rate used to calculate the retirement benefit obligations was 3.76% at December 31, 2016 and 3.96% at December 31, 2015. The retirement benefit obligations are included in accrued expenses and deferred rent and other long-term liabilities.

The Company expects to recognize $104,000 of actuarial losses included in accumulated other comprehensive loss in net periodic benefit cost in 2017.

Expected benefit payments for each of the next five fiscal years and in the aggregate for the five fiscal years thereafter are as follows (in thousands):


Year ending December 31,
2017	$	312
2018		410
2019		397
2020		383
2021		381
2022 through 2026		1,991

Kitchen Craft pension plan

Kitchen Craft was the sponsor of a defined benefit pension plan (the “Plan”) for which service costs accrual ceased prior to its acquisition in January 2014. In October 2014, the Plan trustees secured, in full, all benefits payable or contingently payable under the Plan (subject to adjustment as determined by the UK pension authority in connection with its approval of the Plan’s termination) through the purchase of a group annuity contract from a major UK-based insurance company. The share purchase agreement, pursuant to which the Company acquired Kitchen Craft, provides that any additional contributions required in connection with the settlement and termination of the Plan shall be offset by future amounts owed to the sellers or, if those amounts are insufficient, reimbursed to the Company by the sellers. Accordingly, there was no impact to the Company’s statement of operations in the years ended December 31, 2016 and 2015. The settlement and termination of the Plan occurred in 2015.

The following table summarizes the changes in the projected benefit obligations and plan assets for the year ended December 31, 2015:


	Year Ended December 31,
	2015
	(in thousands)
Change in projected benefit obligations
Projected benefit obligations, beginning of year	$	13,796
Interest cost		—
Actuarial (gain) loss		(2,492	)
Benefits paid		(58	)
Annuity purchase		(11,008	)
Currency adjustment		(238	)

Projected benefit obligations, end of year	$	—


Change in plan assets
Fair value of plan assets, beginning of year	$	15,533
Actual return on plan assets		(1,903	)
Employer (refund) contributions		(2,295	)
Benefits paid		(58	)
Annuity purchase		(11,008	)
Currency adjustment		(269	)

Fair value of plan assets, end of year	$	—


Net Plan funding, end of year	$	—

No periodic pension costs were incurred during the years ended December 31, 2016 and 2015. The following table summarizes the components of net period pension costs for the year ended December 31, 2014 (in thousands).


Components of net periodic pension cost
Expected return on plan assets	$	(390	)
Interest cost on projected benefit obligations		364

Net periodic pension cost	$	(26	)

The accumulated benefit obligations at December 31, 2016 and 2015 were $0. The amount in accumulated other comprehensive income at December 31, 2014 was $623,000.