Of the DSUs outstanding as at December 31, 2017, 610,000 (2016 – 633,000) entitle the holder to receive common shares, 1,103,000 (2016 – 1,235,000) entitle the holder to receive payment in cash and 932,000 (2016 – 814,000) entitle the holder to receive payment in cash or common shares, at the option of the holder.
Compensation expense related to DSUs was $13 for the year ended December 31, 2017 (2016 – $6).
The carrying and fair value amount of the DSUs liability as at December 31, 2017 was $53 (2016 – $43) and was included in other liabilities.
(c) Restricted share units and performance share units
For the year ended December 31, 2017, 5.6 million RSUs (2016 – 7.6 million) and 1.0 million PSUs (2016 – 1.2 million) were granted to certain eligible employees under MFC’s Restricted Share Unit Plan. The fair value of the RSUs and PSUs granted during the year was $26.22 per unit as at December 31, 2017 (2016 – $23.91 per unit). Each RSU and PSU entitles the holder to receive payment equal to the market value of one common share, plus credited dividends, at the time of vesting, subject to any performance conditions.
RSUs granted in February 2017 will vest after 34 months and PSUs granted in February 2017 will vest after 36 months from their grant date and the related compensation expense is recognized over these periods, except where the employee is eligible to retire prior to a vesting date, in which case the cost is recognized over the period between the grant date and the date on which the employee is eligible to retire. Compensation expense related to RSUs and PSUs was $125 and $21, respectively, for the year ended December 31, 2017 (2016 – $110 and $9, respectively).
The carrying and fair value amount of the RSUs and PSUs liability as at December 31, 2017 was $228 (2016 – $196) and was included in other liabilities.
(d) Global share ownership plan
The Company’s Global Share Ownership Plan (“GSOP”) allows qualifying employees to apply up to five per cent of their annual base earnings toward the purchase of common shares. The Company matches a percentage of the employee’s eligible contributions up to a maximum amount. The Company’s contributions vest immediately. All contributions are used to purchase common shares in the open market.
Note 16 Employee Future Benefits
The Company maintains defined contribution and defined benefit pension plans and other post-employment plans for employees and agents including registered (tax qualified) pension plans that are typically funded, as well as supplementalnon-registered(non-qualified) pension plans for executives, retiree welfare plans and disability welfare plans that are typically not funded.
(a) Plan characteristics
To reduce the financial risk associated with final average pay defined benefit pension plans and retiree welfare plans, the Company has over time closed all these plans to new members and, in the case of pension plans, has replaced them with capital accumulation plans. The latter include defined benefit cash balance plans, 401(k) plans and/or defined contribution plans, depending on the country of employment. The result is that final average pay pension plans account for less than 50 per cent of the Company’s global pension obligations and the number of employees who accrue these pensions declines each year.
Prior to the Company’s acquisition of the Canadian-based operations of Standard Life plc, advance provision had been made on Standard Life’s balance sheet for continuing its practice of regularly granting increases in retiree pensions on anon-contractualad-hoc basis. In 2016, the Company concluded that increases would no longer be regularly granted, consistent with the treatment of pensions for retirees under other Manulife plans. To reflect this change, the advance provision was removed, reducing the net defined benefit liability for the former Standard Life plan by $55 which was recorded through income.
All pension arrangements are governed by local pension committees or management but significant plan changes require approval from the Company’s Board of Directors.
The Company’s funding policy for defined benefit pension plans is to make the minimum annual contributions required by regulations in the countries in which the plans are offered. Assumptions and methods prescribed for regulatory funding purposes typically differ from those used for accounting purposes.
The Company’s remaining defined benefit pension and/or retiree welfare plans are in the U.S., Canada, Japan, and Taiwan. There are also disability welfare plans in the U.S. and Canada.
The largest defined benefit pension and retiree welfare plans are the primary plans for employees in the U.S. and Canada. These are the material plans that are discussed in the balance of this note. The Company measures its defined benefit obligations and fair value of plan assets for accounting purposes as at December 31 each year.
U.S. defined benefit pension and retiree welfare plans
The Company operates a qualified cash balance plan that is open to new members, a closednon-qualified cash balance plan, and a closed retiree welfare plan.
Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements | Manulife Financial Corporation | 2017 Annual Report 163