Company: CRD-A
Filing Date: 2025-03-03
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0000950170-25-030894
Chunk: 243

Company: CRAWFORD & CO
Filing Date: 2025-03-03
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 7
Chunk 243
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 U.S. and U.K. that cover a substantial number of current and former employees in each location. Certain other employees participating in the Other International Plans have retirement benefits that are accounted for as defined benefit pension plans under GAAP. We utilize the services of independent actuaries to help us estimate our pension obligations and measure pension costs. Our U.S. Qualified Plan was frozen on December 31, 2002. Our U.K. Plans were closed to new employees as of October 31, 1997, but existing participants may still accrue additional limited benefits based on salary levels existing at the close date. Benefits payable under our U.S. Qualified Plan are generally based on career compensation; however, no additional benefits accrue on our frozen U.S. Qualified Plan after December 31, 2002. Benefits payable under the U.K. Plans are generally based on an employee's salary at the time the applicable plan was closed. Our funding policy is to make cash contributions in amounts sufficient to maintain the plans on an actuarially sound basis, but not in excess of amounts deductible under applicable income tax regulations. Note 8, "Retirement Plans," of our accompanying consolidated financial statements included in Item 8 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K provides details about the assumptions used in determining the funded status of the plans, the unrecognized actuarial gain/(loss), the components of net periodic benefit cost, benefit payments expected to be made in the future and plan asset allocations.

Investment objectives for our U.S. and U.K. pension plan assets are to:

•ensure availability of funds for payment of plan benefits as they become due;

•provide for a reasonable amount of long-term growth of capital, without undue exposure to volatility, and protect the assets from erosion of purchasing power; and

•provide investment results that meet or exceed the actuarially assumed long-term rate of return of each plan.

The long-term goal for the U.S. and U.K. defined benefit pension plans is to reach fully-funded status and to maintain that status. The investment policies contemplate the plans' asset return requirements and risk tolerances changing over time. Accordingly, reallocation of the portfolios' mix of return-seeking assets and liability-hedging assets will be performed as the plans' funded status improves. In conjunction with our investment policies, we have rebalanced the U.S. and U.K. defined benefit pension plans' target allocation mix from an equity-weighted to a fixed-income weighted investment strategy, as we have made cash contributions to the plans