employee relations atter has been appointed as company activities regarding id benefit plans and recruit in further recognition of the critical role tl play in the success of the company a depc has been established and mr m c strittn its director this department will centralize ment other important personnel changes during the year include the election of mr guy v sperry as vice president and chief engineer and mr john m horrigan as secretary both have records of long service with the company the compo ny has long recognized that a soundly conceived program of employee benefits is in the best interests of both the employees and the stockholders for some years the company has offered protection against personnel misfortune through the group insurance plon and has provided the retirement plan based on profit sharing to help the employee when he reaches the age to discontinue working during 1957 583 permanent employees and their families were covered under the group insurance plan affording coverage for hospital surgical medical polio and accident benefits the face amount of life insurance in effect under the plan amounted to 4,382,000 on individual policies ranging from 2,000 to 20,000 583 claims were paid to 298 employees and their families the total premium cost to the company was 108,651 or 186 for each employee covered as previously noted the company contributed 394,662 to the employees retirement plan based on profit sharing and set aside another 248,925 to be added to the reserve for future payments under the retirement plan at the end of the year 388 employees were members of the plan a net increase of 93 during the year during the year benefits of 22,281 were paid to terminating or retiring employees this year the stockholders gave approval to an employee stock purchase plan whereby key employees in a position to materially influence profits have the privilege of purchasing shares of the company on an installment basis accordingly during the year 25,450 shares of the company stock were sold to 25 employees at a price of 25 a shore the market price when financial comment in appraising the financial results of utah construction company con sideration should be given to the three principal sources of economic benefits to the owners the first two parent company earnings and the company's share of the undistributed earnings of subsidiary and affiliated companies are covered specifically in the letter to the stockholders the third source of benefit is the change in market value of the assets held by the company and this is not reflected in the financial statements in which assets are valued on a cost basis among the fixed assets of utah construction company are certain proper ties held for development and resale mining lands and leases and con struction equipment we believe that these assets ore conservatively valued but it is not practicable to appraise their present worth the company also owns securities in other companies which have an indicated value far in excess of their original cost however only two of these securities are actively traded in over-the-counter markets permanente cement company stock is a seasoned investment and certain brokerage houses make a market for the stock lucky me uranium corporation stock is actively traded in relatively small quantifies but the market's ability to absorb a large offering has never been tested with this caution in mind we report herewith the indicated value of the securities we hold marke no of the difference between the total indicated value of our securities and their cost ot the end of 1956 was 11,500,000 the major portion of the in crease of 12,000,000 during the year was caused by the addition of lucky me to our portfolio while the 87,920 shares of permanente stock paid out as dividends accounted for the principal decrease utah construction company arranged a long term bank credit in 1955 5,000,000 was in the form of a revolving credit maturing in 1960 6,000,000 represented a term loan with three installments of 750,000 payable in 1957 1958 and 1959 and the balance payable in 1960 the 1957 installment was paid when due leaving a term loan balance out standing of 5,250,000 at the end of the year 4,425,000 had also been borrowed under the revolving credit in addition to its direct borrowing the parent company has assumed certain contingent liabilities in connection with the obligations of subsidiary and affiliated companies depreciation charges amounted to 2,161,743 for 1957 compared to 2,153,939 in 1956 in both years depreciation was mainly computed on the declining balance method which resulted in charges of 566,362 in 1957 and 786,029 in 1956 over the amounts that would have been charged under the straight line basis 1957 earnings have also been charged with 643,587 to provide for the company's contributions to the retirement plan based on profit sharing of this amount 394,662 will be paid currently into the employees trust and the balance of 248,925 has been added to the reserve for future payments to the retirement plan this reserve now amounts to 496,483 and is required because employee profit sharing is based upon a 3-year moving average of profits if earnings continue to produce a contribution in excess of the maximum payable under the plan the reserve for future payments will be adjusted and any amount no longer required under the profit-sharing formula will be restored to earnings in future years at a special meeting of the stockholders held in january of 1957 it was voted to merge the parent company a utah corporation since foundation in 1 900 into a delaware corporation of the same name the practical result of this act was to transfer the corporate domicile from utah to delaware thereby eliminating certain problems regarding stock issuance and taxation of income the name ownership management nature of business and financial status were unaffected by this acf