NEXTERA ENERGY, INC. EMPLOYEE RETIREMENT SAVINGS PLAN
NOTES TO FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
DECEMBER 31, 2018 AND 2017
Benefit Payments and Withdrawals
Withdrawals by Participants from their accounts during their employment are permitted with certain penalties and restrictions. The penalties may limit a Participant’s contributions to the Plan for varying periods following a withdrawal. Upon termination from employment, Participants are eligible to receive a distribution of the full value of their vested account balance. Terminated Participants can elect to receive a full payment, partial payments, or installments over a period of up to ten years.
Administrative Expenses
The Company pays a portion of the administrative expenses of the Plan. Additionally, Plan participants pay a fee of $61 per year to cover some of the administrative expenses of the Plan. All other expenses are paid directly by the Plan through forfeitures or revenue sharing that the Plan receives either directly or indirectly from certain of the Plan’s investment options. Any fees paid directly by the Company are not included in the financial statements.
Plan Termination
Although it has not expressed any intent to do so, the Company has the right under the Plan to discontinue its contributions at any time and to terminate the Plan subject to the provisions of ERISA. In the event of Plan termination, Participants will become 100% vested in their accounts.
2. Summary of Significant Accounting Policies
Basis of Accounting
The financial statements of the Plan are prepared under the accrual basis of accounting in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America.
Use of Estimates
The preparation of financial statements requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets, liabilities, and changes therein, and disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities. Actual results could differ from those estimates.
Investment Valuation
The Plan’s investments are reported at fair value, except for the fully benefit-responsive investment contracts, which are reported at contract value. Fair value measurement guidance emphasizes that fair value is a market-based measurement, not an entity-specific measurement, and sets out a fair value hierarchy intended to disclose information about the relative reliability of fair value measurements, with the highest priority being unadjusted quoted prices in active markets for identical assets or liabilities.
In some cases, a valuation approach used to measure fair value may include inputs from multiple levels of fair value hierarchy. The lowest level of significant input determines the placement of the entire fair value measurement in the hierarchy.
The Plan recognizes transfers into and out of fair value hierarchy levels at the beginning of the period.
The following are descriptions of the valuation methods and assumptions used by the Plan to estimate the fair values of investments held by the Plan.
Registered investment companies (mutual funds), Company Stock, and common stock: Investments in shares of registered investment companies are valued at quoted market prices in active markets (Level 1 inputs), which represent the net asset value of such shares at year-end. Investments in shares of actively traded money market mutual funds are stated at the net asset value of such shares held at year-end (Level 1 inputs). Company Stock and other publicly traded common stock are valued at their quoted market price in active markets (Level 1 inputs). Certain common stock is valued using significant unobservable inputs (Level 3 inputs).
Collective trust funds: The fair values of participation units held in collective trust funds are based on the net asset value per unit share reported by the fund manager as of the financial statement dates and on recent transaction prices (Level 2 inputs). Each collective trust fund provides for daily redemptions reported at net asset value per unit share, with no advance notice requirement.
The following is a description of the valuation methods and assumptions used by the Plan to report the contract value of the fully benefit-responsive synthetic guaranteed investment contracts held by the Plan.
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