Employee Benefit Plans

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2012

Note 11. Employee Benefit Plans

401(k) Salary Deferral Plan

The Company has a 401(k) Salary Deferral Plan. This plan covers all eligible employees who elect to contribute to the Plan. An employee who has attained 18 years of age and has been employed for at least 30 calendar days is eligible to participate in the Plan effective with the next quarterly enrollment period. Employees become eligible to receive the Company contribution to the Salary Deferral Plan at each future enrollment period upon completion of one year of service.

During the third quarter of 2011, the Company’s Board of Directors approved a discretionary match of 50% for the first 3% of a participant’s pay deferred into the 401(k) Retirement Savings Plan. Contributions from the Company vest to the employee over a five year schedule. The expense associated with the Company’s contribution was $51,000 for the three months ended March 31, 2012, compared to $33,000 for the same period in 2011, and was included in salaries and employee benefits expense in the Consolidated Statements of Operations.

Deferred Compensation Agreements and Salary Continuation Plan

The Company has entered into deferred compensation agreements with certain directors and a salary continuation plan for certain key employees. The present value of the future liability for these agreements was $2.0 million at both March 31, 2012 and December 31, 2011. For the three months ended March 31, 2012 and 2011, $51,000 and $48,000, respectively, was charged to expense in connection with these agreements. To fund the benefits under these agreements, the Company is the owner and beneficiary of life insurance policies on the lives of certain directors and employees. These bank-owned life insurance policies had an aggregate cash surrender value of $19.9 million and $19.8 million at March 31, 2012 and December 31, 2011, respectively.

Employee Stock Purchase Plan

The Company has a non-compensatory Employee Stock Purchase Plan (“ESPP”). Under the ESPP, employees of the Company who elect to participate are eligible to purchase shares of common stock at prices up to a 5 percent discount from the market value of the stock. The ESPP does not allow the discount in the event that the purchase price would fall below the Company’s most recently reported book value per share. The ESPP allows an employee to make contributions through payroll deductions to purchase shares of common stock up to 15 percent of annual compensation. At March 31, 2012, the total number of remaining shares of common stock that may be issued pursuant to the ESPP was 216,421. As of March 31, 2012, a total of 87,455 shares had been issued under the ESPP. For the first three months of 2012 and 2011, the market value of the Company’s stock was below the Company’s book value per share. The employees of the Company did not receive a 5% discount on purchases made under the ESPP during this timeframe. As a result, the Company did not recognize any expense relative to its ESPP for the three months ended March 31, 2012 and 2011.

As required by the proposed merger agreement with Tompkins Financial, the Company suspended the ESPP during the first quarter of 2012.

- Definition

The entire disclosure for compensation costs, including compensated absences accruals, compensated absences liability, deferred compensation arrangements and income statement compensation items. Deferred compensation arrangements may include a description of an arrangement with an individual employee, which is generally an employment contract between the entity and a selected officer or key employee containing a promise by the employer to pay certain amounts at designated future dates, usually including a period after retirement, upon compliance with stipulated requirements. This type of arrangement is distinguished from broader based employee benefit plans as it is usually tailored to the employee. Disclosure also typically includes the amount of related compensation expense recognized during the reporting period, the number of shares (units) issued during the period under such arrangements, and the carrying amount as of the balance sheet date of the related liability.

+ References+ Details

VIST FINANCIAL CORP 10-Q