PROFITABLE GROWTH FOR ALL

Notes to the Financial Statements
NOTE 17. RETIREMENT BENEFITS (Continued)
Our policy for funded pension plans is to contribute annually, at a minimum, amounts required by applicable laws and
regulations. We occasionally make contributions beyond those legally required. In general, our plans are funded, with the
main exceptions being certain plans in Germany, and U.S. defined benefit plans for senior management. In such cases,
an unfunded liability is recorded.
Employee Retirement and Savings Plans. We, and certain of our subsidiaries, sponsor plans to provide pension
benefits for retired employees. We have qualified defined benefit retirement plans in the United States covering hourly
and salaried employees. The principal hourly plan covers Ford employees represented by the UAW. The salaried plan
covers substantially all other Ford employees in the United States hired on or before December 31, 2003. The hourly plan
provides noncontributory benefits related to employee service. The salaried plan provides similar noncontributory benefits
and contributory benefits related to pay and service. Other U.S. and non-U.S. subsidiaries have separate plans that
generally provide similar types of benefits for their employees.
We established, effective January 1, 2004, a defined contribution plan covering salaried U.S. employees hired on or
after that date. Effective October 24, 2011, hourly U.S. employees represented by the UAW hired on or after that date
also participate in a defined contribution plan.
The expense for our worldwide defined contribution plans was $134 million, $123 million, and $92 million in 2011,
2010, and 2009, respectively. This includes the expense for company matching contributions to our primary employee
savings plan in the United States of $54 million, $52 million, and $0 in 2011, 2010, and 2009, respectively.
OPEB. We, and certain of our subsidiaries, sponsor plans to provide OPEB for retired employees, primarily certain
health care and life insurance benefits. The Ford Salaried Health Care Plan (the "Plan") provides retiree health care
benefits for Ford salaried employees in the United States hired before June 1, 2001. U.S. salaried employees hired on or
after June 1, 2001 are covered by a separate plan that provides for annual company allocations to employee-specific
notional accounts to be used to fund postretirement health care benefits. The Plan also covers Ford hourly non-UAW
represented employees in the United States hired before November 19, 2007. U.S. hourly employees hired on or after
November 19, 2007 are eligible to participate in a separate health care plan that provides defined contributions made by
Ford to individual participant accounts. As discussed below, UAW represented employees hired before
November 19, 2007 are covered by the UAW Retiree Medical Benefits Trust (the "UAW VEBA Trust"), an independent
non-Ford sponsored voluntary employee beneficiary association trust. Company-paid postretirement life insurance
benefits also are provided to U.S. salaried employees hired before January 1, 2004 and all U.S. hourly employees.
Effective August 1, 2008, the Company-paid retiree basic life insurance benefits were capped at $25,000 for eligible
existing and future salaried retirees. Salaried employees hired on or after January 1, 2004 are not eligible for retiree basic
life insurance.
On December 31, 2009, we fully settled our UAW postretirement health care obligation pursuant to the 2008 UAW
Retiree Health Care Settlement Agreement ("Settlement Agreement") amended in 2009. In exchange for the transfer of
Plan Assets of about $3.5 billion and certain assets of about $11.3 billion, we irrevocably transferred our obligation to
provide retiree health care for eligible active and retired UAW Ford hourly employees and their eligible spouses, surviving
spouses and dependents to the UAW VEBA Trust. As a result of the transfer, we removed from our balance sheet and
transferred to the UAW VEBA Trust our UAW postretirement obligation of about $13.6 billion. We recognized a net loss of
$264 million including the effect of a deferred gain from prior periods of $967 million.
128 Ford Motor Company | 2011 Annual Report