projected benefit obligation

Expenses2

1. 715-20Defined Benefit Plans—General715 Compensation—Retirement Benefits

   ASC 715-20 governs the presentation and disclosure requirements for single-employer defined benefit pension and other postretirement benefit (OPEB) plans, and it confirms that a cash balance plan is a defined benefit plan. It requires employers to disclose, separately for pension and OPEB plans, reconciliations of the benefit obligation and plan assets, funded status and where it is recognized on the balance sheet, plan asset fair value information by class, weighted-average assumptions, expected future benefit payments and contributions, and amounts in AOCI not yet recognized in net periodic benefit cost. On the face of the income statement, only the service cost component goes with other compensation cost; all other components must be presented separately and outside any subtotal of income from operations.

2. 715-30Defined Benefit Plans—Pension715 Compensation—Retirement Benefits

   ASC 715-30 governs an employer's accounting for single-employer defined benefit pension plans: it requires the employer to recognize the plan's funded status (projected benefit obligation versus fair value of plan assets) on the balance sheet and to recognize net periodic pension cost made up of service cost, interest cost, actual return on plan assets, and amortization of prior service cost/credit, net gain or loss, and any remaining transition asset or obligation. Gains, losses, and prior service cost are first recognized in other comprehensive income and amortized into net periodic pension cost over time (subject to the 10 percent corridor for net gains and losses). Separate Subsections govern settlements, curtailments, and certain termination benefits, which accelerate recognition in earnings of amounts sitting in accumulated other comprehensive income.