Note 12

EMPLOYEE BENEFIT PLANS

Pension Plan

The Company sponsors a noncontributory pension plan covering substantially all of its associates.  Benefits under this plan generally are based on the associate’s total years of service and average of the five highest years of compensation during the ten years immediately preceding their departure.  The Company’s general funding policy is to contribute amounts sufficient to meet minimum funding requirements as set by law and to ensure deductibility for federal income tax purposes.

The following table details on a consolidated basis the changes in benefit obligation, changes in plan assets, the funded status of the plan, components of pension expense, amounts recognized in the Company’s consolidated statements of financial condition, and major assumptions used to determine these amounts.

The Company expects to recognize $3.2 million of the net actuarial loss and $0.3 million of the prior service cost reflected in accumulated other comprehensive income at December 31, 2015 as a component of net periodic benefit cost during 2016.

Effective December 31, 2015, the Company changed the method used to estimate the service and interest components of net periodic benefit cost for the defined benefit and supplemental executive retirement plans. This new estimation approach discounts the individual expected cash flows underlying the service cost and interest cost using the applicable spot rates derived from the yield curve used to discount the cash flows for the benefit obligations.  Historically, the estimated service and interest cost components utilized a single weighted-average discount rate derived from the yield curve used to measure the benefit obligations at the beginning of the period. The Company elected this change to provide a more precise measurement of service and interest costs by improving the correlation between projected benefit cash flows to the corresponding spot yield curve rates.  The change will be accounted for as a change in accounting estimate that is inseparable from a change in accounting principle and accordingly will be accounted for prospectively.  While the benefit obligations for the plans measured under this approach are unchanged, the more granular application of the spot rates will decrease the combined service and interest costs for the defined benefit retirement plan for fiscal 2016 by $0.7 million.

Plan Assets. The Company’s pension plan asset allocation at year-end 2015 and 2014, and the target asset allocation for 2016 are as follows:

The Company’s pension plan assets are overseen by the CCBG Retirement Committee.  Capital City Trust Company acts as the investment manager for the plan.  The investment strategy is to maximize return on investments while minimizing risk.  The Company believes the best way to accomplish this goal is to take a conservative approach to its investment strategy by investing in high-grade equity and debt securities. The overall expected long-term rate of return on assets is a weighted-average expectation for the return on plan assets.  The Company considers historical performance data and economic/financial data to arrive at expected long-term rates of return for each asset category.

The major categories of assets in the Company’s pension plan as of December 31 are presented in the following table. Assets are segregated by the level of the valuation inputs within the fair value hierarchy established by ASC Topic 820 utilized to measure fair value (see Note 19 – Fair Value Measurements).

Expected Benefit Payments.  As of December 31, expected benefit payments related to the defined benefit pension plan were as follows:

Contributions.  The following table details the amounts contributed to the pension plan in 2014 and 2015, and the expected amount to be contributed in 2016.

⁽¹⁾ For 2016, the Company will have the option to make a cash contribution to the plan or utilize pre-funding balances.

Supplemental Executive Retirement Plan

The Company has a Supplemental Executive Retirement Plan (“SERP”) covering selected executive officers.  Benefits under this plan generally are based on the same service and compensation as used for the pension plan, except the benefits are calculated without regard to the limits set by the Internal Revenue Code on compensation and benefits.  The net benefit payable from the SERP is the difference between this gross benefit and the benefit payable by the pension plan.

The following table details on a consolidated basis the changes in benefit obligation, the funded status of the plan, components of pension expense, amounts recognized in the Company’s consolidated statements of financial condition, and major assumptions used to determine these amounts.

The Company expects to recognize approximately $0.8 million of the net actuarial loss reflected in accumulated other comprehensive income at December 31, 2015 as a component of net periodic benefit cost during 2016.

Effective December 31, 2015, the Company changed the method used to estimate the service and interest components of net periodic benefit cost for the supplemental executive retirement plans to mirror the change previously noted for the defined benefit plan. While the benefit obligations for the plans measured under this approach are unchanged, the more granular application of the spot rates will decrease the combined service and interest costs for the supplemental executive retirement plan for fiscal 2016 by $34,000.

Expected Benefit Payments. As of December 31, expected benefit payments related to the SERP were as follows:

401(k) Plan

The Company has a 401(k) Plan which enables associates to defer a portion of their salary on a pre-tax basis.  The plan covers substantially all associates of the Company who meet minimum age requirements.  The plan is designed to enable participants to elect to have an amount from 1% to 15% of their compensation withheld in any plan year placed in the 401(k) Plan trust account. Matching contributions of 50% from the Company are made up to 6% of the participant’s compensation for eligible associates. During 2015, the Company made matching contributions of $0.5 million. For the years 2014 and 2013, the Company made matching contributions of $0.5 and $0.4 million, respectively. The participant may choose to invest their contributions into twenty-seven investment options available to 401(k) participants, including the Company’s common stock.  A total of 50,000 shares of CCBG common stock have been reserved for issuance.  Shares issued to participants have historically been purchased in the open market.

Other Plans

The Company has a Dividend Reinvestment and Optional Stock Purchase Plan.  A total of 250,000 shares have been reserved for issuance.  In recent years, shares for the Dividend Reinvestment and Optional Stock Purchase Plan have been acquired in the open market and, thus, the Company did not issue any shares under this plan in 2015, 2014 and 2013.