Energy Transfer 2015 Annual Report Download - page 224

Table of Contents
13. RETIREMENT BENEFITS:
Savings and Profit Sharing Plans
We and our subsidiaries sponsor defined contribution savings and profit sharing plans, which collectively cover virtually all eligible employees.
Employer matching contributions are calculated using a formula based on employee contributions. We and our subsidiaries made matching
contributions of $39 million, $50 million and $45 million to these 401(k) savings plans for the years ended December 31, 2015, 2014, and 2013,
respectively.
Pension and Other Postretirement Benefit Plans
Panhandle
Postretirement benefits expense for the years ended December 31, 2015 and 2014 reflect the impact of changes Panhandle or its affiliates adopted as of
September 30, 2013, to modify its retiree medical benefits program, effective January 1, 2014. The modification placed all eligible retirees on a common
medical benefit platform, subject to limits on Panhandle’s annual contribution toward eligible retirees’ medical premiums. Prior to January 1, 2013,
affiliates of Panhandle offered postretirement health care and life insurance benefit plans (other postretirement plans) that covered substantially all
employees. Effective January 1, 2013, participation in the plan was frozen and medical benefits were no longer offered to non-union employees.
Effective January 1, 2014, retiree medical benefits were no longer offered to union employees.
Sunoco, Inc.
Sunoco, Inc. sponsors a defined benefit pension plan, which was frozen for most participants on June 30, 2010. On October 31, 2014, Sunoco, Inc.
terminated the plan, and paid lump sums to eligible active and terminated vested participants in December 2015.
Sunoco, Inc. also has a plan which provides health care benefits for substantially all of its current retirees. The cost to provide the postretirement benefit
plan is shared by Sunoco, Inc. and its retirees. Access to postretirement medical benefits was phased out or eliminated for all employees retiring after July
1, 2010. In March, 2012, Sunoco, Inc. established a trust for its postretirement benefit liabilities. Sunoco made a tax-deductible contribution of
approximately $200 million to the trust. The funding of the trust eliminated substantially all of Sunoco, Inc.’s future exposure to variances between
actual results and assumptions used to estimate retiree medical plan obligations.
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