In December 2019, an amendment to the Plan was adopted providing that no new GEICO employees shall become participants in the Plan for Plan years beginning on or after January 1, 2019 (“the freeze”) and no GEICO contributions shall be made under the Plan with respect to services performed and compensation earned by the GEICO employees, that were formerly eligible to be Participants, for Plan years beginning on or after January 1, 2019. Therefore, there will be no further allocations to GEICO employees as they are no longer participants.
Effective as of June 1, 2020, the Plan was amended and restated to:
| 1) | discontinue the GEICO participation in the ESOP portion of the Plan so that the GEICO Companies’ were no longer participating employers in the Plan and to transfer assets under the ESOP attributable to employees of GEICO to the trust under the Revised Profit-Sharing Plan for the Employees of the Government Employees Companies (“GEICO plan”), and, |
| 2) | rename the Plan the “Employee Savings and Stock Ownership Plan of General Re Corporation and its Domestic Subsidiaries”. |
Effective June 1, 2020, the plan transferred assets of $331,211,204 to the GEICO plan, which represented participant account balances and forfeitures accumulated at that time related to former GEICO participants. The transferred assets included 1,545,644 shares of Berkshire Common Stock.
During 2020, the Plan adopted two changes in accordance with the IRS CARES Act. These were the waiving the early 10% penalty for early withdrawals up to $100,000 and suspension of minimum distribution requirements for 2020.
Gen Re makes annual cash contributions necessary to repay the Loan which allows for the allocation of Berkshire Common Stock to Plan participants. The Loan is guaranteed by the Plan sponsor. The Plan’s investment in the Berkshire B ESOP Fund consists solely of Berkshire Common Stock shares.
Gen Re has no rights against shares of Berkshire Common Stock once the shares are allocated to participants. During the year ended December 31, 2021, Gen Re contributed $149,237 to support the Plan’s debt service. The debt service included $12,172 of interest expense. The Loan balance was $50,196 and $187,261 at December 31, 2021 and 2020 respectively.
The Plan allocated 34,623 shares of Berkshire Common Stock to participants in 2021. In 2021, the Plan also used 729 shares for fees, 144,493 shares were sold and retired from the Plan, and no shares were used from the forfeiture account toward Gen Re employer contributions. The ESOP account had a 5,247 share decrease in the supplemental share account due to benefit and loan activity. The Plan held 1,637,470 allocated shares and 21,849 unallocated shares of Berkshire Common Stock as of December 31, 2021. The Plan held 1,752,507 allocated shares and 57,201 unallocated shares as of December 31, 2020. The Plan also held 217,248 shares of Berkshire Common Stock via the Berkshire B Unitized Fund.
Contributions - The Plan allows Gen Re participants to make after-tax contributions as well as tax-deferred contributions to the Plan as permitted under IRC Section 401(k). Such participants may contribute up to 16% of their annual base salary, subject to IRC limitations for 401(k) contributions, which, for tax-deferred contributions, was $19,500 for 2021. Gen Re participants who have attained age 50 before the end of the Plan year were eligible to make Catch-Up contributions up to $6,500 for 2021. Gen Re participant contributions may be allocated to certain mutual funds, a collective investment fund and the Company Stock Fund. Participants cannot contribute into the Berkshire B ESOP Fund. Gen Re contributes an amount equal to 100% of a participant’s contribution up to 6% of the participant’s base salary, except for United States Aviation Underwriters, Inc. (“USAU”) participants who are matched at 100% of a participant’s contribution up 4 % of their base salary. In 2021, the Plan allocated $8,287,548 in matching contributions to Gen Re participants using shares of Berkshire Common Stock.
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