10:RETIREMENT BENEFITS

CMS Energy and Consumers provide pension, OPEB, and other retirement benefits to employees under a number of different plans.

Presented in the following tables are the costs and other changes in plan assets and benefit obligations incurred in CMS Energy’s and Consumers’ retirement benefits plans:

CMS Energy’s and Consumers’ expected long-term rate of return on Pension Plan assets is 7.75 percent.  For the twelve months ended September 30, 2012, the actual return on Pension Plan assets was 18.6 percent, and for the twelve months ended September 30, 2011, the actual return was 2.0 percent.  The expected rate of return is an assumption about long-term asset performance that CMS Energy and Consumers review annually for reasonableness and appropriateness.

10:RETIREMENT BENEFITS

CMS Energy and Consumers provide pension, OPEB, and other retirement benefits to employees under a number of different plans.

Presented in the following tables are the costs and other changes in plan assets and benefit obligations incurred in CMS Energy’s and Consumers’ retirement benefits plans:

CMS Energy’s and Consumers’ expected long-term rate of return on Pension Plan assets is 7.75 percent.  For the twelve months ended September 30, 2012, the actual return on Pension Plan assets was 18.6 percent, and for the twelve months ended September 30, 2011, the actual return was 2.0 percent.  The expected rate of return is an assumption about long-term asset performance that CMS Energy and Consumers review annually for reasonableness and appropriateness.