Exhibit 10.21
FIRST FARMERS AND MERCHANTS
BANK
DIRECTOR DEFERRED COMPENSATION AGREEMENT
This Director Deferred Compensation Agreement
(the “Agreement”) is adopted this 5th day of March,
2008, by and between First Fanners and Merchants Bank, a
state-chartered commercial bank located in Columbia, Tennessee (the
“Bank”), and Tim E. Pettus (the “Director”)
and is effective as of the 5th day of March, 2008.
The purpose of this Agreement is to
provide specified benefits to the Director who contributes to the
continued growth, development and future business success of the
bank.
ARTICLE 1
Definitions
Whenever used in this Agreement, the
following words and phrases shall have the meaning
specified:
1.1
“ Beneficiary ”
means each designated person, or the estate of the deceased
Director, entitled to benefits, if any, upon the death of the
Director determined pursuant to Article 6.
1.2
“ Beneficiary Designation
Form ” means the form established from time to time by
the Plan Administrator that the Director completes signs and
returns to the Plan Administrator to designate one or more
beneficiaries.
1.3
“ Board ” means
the Board of Directors of the Bank as from time to time
constituted.
1.4
“ Change in Control
” means a change in the ownership or effective control of the
Bank, as such change is defined in section 409A of the code and
regulations there under.
1.5
“ Code ” means
the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended.
1.6
“ Crediting Rate
” means the Wall Street Journal Prime Rate as published on
the last business day of the previous Plan Year plus three percent
(3%), with a maximum rate of nine and three quarters percent
(9.75%).
1.7
“ Deferrals ”
means the amount of Fees which the Director elects to defer
according to this Agreement. In the absence of a valid Deferral
Election Form, Deferrals shall mean 100% of the Fees.
1.8
“ Deferral Account
” means the Bank’s accounting of the Director’s
accumulated Deferrals, plus accrued interest.
1.9
“ Deferral Election
Form ” means the form established from time to time by
the plan Administrator that the Director completes, signs, and
returns to the Plan Administrator to designate the amount of the
deferrals.
1.10
“ Distribution Election
Form ” means the form established from time to time by
the Plan Administrator that the Director completes, signs, and
returns to the Plan Administrator to designate the time and form of
distribution.
1.11
“ Fees ” means
the total fees payable to the Director during a Plan
Year.
1.12
“ Original Effective
Date ” means March 5, 2008.
1.13
“ Plan Administrator
” means the plan administrator described in
Article 8.
1.14
“ Plan Year ”
means each twelve-month period commencing on January 1 and
ending on December 31 of each year.
1.15
“ Separation from
Service ” In accordance with Section 409A,
“Separation from Service” shall mean the Director dies,
retires, or otherwise has a termination of service with the Bank.
However, the employment relationship is treated as continuing
intact while the individual is on military leave, sick leave, or
other bona fide leave of absence if the period of such leave does
not exceed six (6) months, or if longer, so long as the
individual retains a right to reemployment with the service
recipient under an applicable statute or by contract. For purposes
of this definition, a leave of absence constitutes a bona fide
leave of absence only if there is a reasonable expectation that the
Director will return to perform services for the Bank. If the
period of leave exceeds six (6) months and the individual does
not retain a right to reemployment under an applicable statute or
by contract, the employment relationship is deemed to terminate on
the first date immediately following such six (6) month
period. Notwithstanding the foregoing, where a leave of absence is
due to any medically determinable physical or mental impairment
that can be expected to result in death or can be expected to last
for a continuous period of not less than six (6) months, where
such impairment causes the Director to be unable to perform the
duties of his or her position of employment or any substantially
similar position of employment, a twenty-nine (29) month period of
absence may be substituted for such six (6) month
period.
Whether a termination of service has
occurred is determined based on whether the facts and circumstances
indicate that the Bank and Director reasonably anticipated that no
further services would be performed after a certain date or that
the level of bona fide services the Director would
perform
after such date (whether as a
Director or as an independent contractor) would permanently
decrease to no more than twenty percent (20%) of the average level
of bona fide services performed (whether as a Director or an
independent contractor) over the immediately preceding thirty-six
(36) month period (or the full period of services to the Bank if
the Director has been providing services to the Bank less than 36
months). Facts and circumstances to be considered in making this
determination include, but are not limited to, whether the Director
continues to be treated as an Director for other purposes (such as
continuation of salary and participation in Director benefit
programs), whether similarly situated service providers have been
treated consistently, and whether the Director is permitted, and
realistically available, to perform services for other service
recipients in the same line of business. A Director is presumed to
have separated from service where the level of bona fide services
performed decreases to a level equal to twenty percent (20%) or
less of the average level of services performed by the Director
during the immediately preceding thirty-six (36) month period. A
Director will be presumed not to have separated from service where
the level of bona fide services performed continues at a level that
is fifty percent (50%) or more of the average level of service
performed by the Director during the immediately preceding
thirty-six (36) month period.
1.16
“ Termination for Cause
” means a Separation from Service for:
(a)
Gross negligence or gross neglect of
duties to the Bank; or
(b)
Conviction of a felony or of a gross
misdemeanor involving moral turpitude in connection with the
Director’s service with the Bank; or
(c)
Fraud, disloyalty, dishonesty or
willful violation of any law or significant Bank policy committed
in connection with the Director’s service and resulting in a
material adverse effect on the Bank.
1.17
“ Unforeseeable
Emergency ” means a severe financial hardship to the
Director resulting from an illness or accident of the Director, the
Director’s spouse, or the Director’s dependent (as
defined in Section 152(a) of the Code), loss of the
Director’s property due to casualty, or other similar
extraordinary and unforeseeable circumstances arising as a result
of events beyond the control of the Director.
Article 2
Deferral Election
2.1
“ Elections Generally
” In any Plan Year during which Director defers fees,
Director shall file a Deferral Election Form for any fees
deferred. Such form shall be filed with the Plan Administrator no
later than the end of the Plan
Year preceding the Plan Year during
which services will be performed for fees deferred, and is
effective only to deferred fees that have not yet been earned by
the Director.
2.2
A deferral election submitted for a
particular year may continue to be valid for succeeding years until
changed or modified. Deferral elections, once made, however, are
irrevocable for the Plan Year in which the fees are to be
deferred.
A.
Initial Deferral
Election(s) .
Upon notification of eligibility in
this Agreement during the initial Plan Year, and if Director elects
to defer fees, Director shall deliver to the Plan
Administrator:
(a)
a Deferral Election Form, signed and
dated;
(b)
a Beneficiary Form, signed and
dated;
(c)
a Distribution Election Form, signed
and dated.
The Director shall deliver such
forms to the Plan Administrator within thirty (30) days of
notification of eligibility, and shall set forth on the forms the
amount of fees to be deferred.
2.3
Change in Form or Timing of
Distributions . All
changes in the form or timing of distributions hereunder must
comply with the following requirements. The changes:
(a)
may not accelerate the time or
schedule of any distribution, except as provided in
Section 409A of the Code and the regulations
thereunder;
(b)
must, for benefits distributable
under Section 4.1, delay the commencement of distributions for
a minimum of five (5) years from the date the first
distribution was originally scheduled to be made; and
(c)
must take effect not less than
twelve (12) months after the election is made.
Article 3
Deferral Account
3.1
Establishing and
Crediting . The Bank
shall establish a Deferral Account on its books for the Director
and shall credit to the Deferral Account the following
amounts:
(a)
Any Deferrals hereunder: and
(b)
Interest as follows:
(i)
On the last day of each month
interest shall be credited on the Deferral Account at an annual
rate equal to the Crediting Rate, compounded monthly until the
account has a zero balance; and
(ii)
Prior to the commencement of any
distributions hereunder, the Board, in its sole discretion, may
change the rate used to calculate interest credited on the unpaid
Deferral Account balance during any applicable installment period.
Once the annual interest rate is determined it will compound
monthly on the last day of each month.
3.2
Accounting Device Only
. The Deferral Account is solely a
device for measuring amounts to be paid under this Agreement. The
Deferral Account is not a trust fund of any kind. The Director is a
general unsecured creditor of the Bank for the distribution of
benefits. The benefits represent the mere Bank promise to
distribute such benefits. The Director’s rights are not
subject in any manner to anticipation, alienation, sale, transfer,
assignment, pledge, encumbrance, attachment or garnishment by the
Director’s creditors.
Article 4
Distributions During Lifetime
4.1
Separation from Service
Benefit . Upon Separation
from Service, the Bank shall distribute to the Director the benefit
described in this section 4.1.
4.1.1
Amount of Benefit
. The benefit under this
Section 4.1 is the Deferral Account balance plus interest at
Separation from Service.
4.1.2
Distribution of
Benefit . The Bank shall
pay the benefit to the Director as elected by the Director on the
Distribution Election Form commencing within sixty (60) days
following Separation from Service. In the event the Director elects
monthly installments, the Bank shall annuitize the Deferral Account
using an interest rate determined in accordance with
Section 3.1(b)(ii).
4.2
Hardship Distribution
. The Bank will permit early
withdrawals for an unforeseeable emergency under certain
circumstances arising as a result of events beyond the control of
the Director. The Director may submit an application for an
in-service early withdrawal due to an unforeseeable emergency to
the Board of Directors. If, in the discretion of the Board, the
Director is permitted to take an early withdrawal due to an
unforeseeable
emergency, the Board shall make a
distribution to such Director from the Director’s Account.
Such distribution shall be paid in one (1) lump sum payment
within thirty (30) days, after the Board determines that the
Director is permitted to take an early withdrawal due to an
unforeseeable emergency. The amount of such lump sum payment shall
be limited to the amount reasonably necessary to meet the
Director’s requirements to the extent such emergency is not
relieved through reimbursement or compensation from insurance or
otherwise, by liquidation of the Director’s assets, (to the
extent the liquidation of such assets will not cause severe
financial hardship) or by cessation of deferrals. For purposes of
this section the term “ unforeseeable emergency
” means a severe financial hardship to the Director resulting
from an illness or accident of the Director, the Director’s
spouse, the Director’s dependent, or the Director’s
Beneficiary, loss of the Director’s property due to casualty,
other similar extraordinary and unforeseeable circumstances arising
as a result of events beyond the control of the Director. The
imminent foreclosure of or eviction from the service
provider’s primary residence may constitute an unforeseeable
emergency. In addition, the need to pay for medical expenses,
including non-refundable deductibles, as well as for the costs of
prescription drug medication, may constitute an unforeseeable
emergency. Finally, the need to pay for the funeral expenses of a
spouse, a beneficiary, or a dependent may also constitute an
unforeseeable emergency. At all times this definition shall be
construed in accordance with the definition under
Section 409A. If the Director seeks to terminate any current
deferral elections or re-start the deferral election, it must be
done in accordance with Section 409A.
4.3
Restriction on Timing of
Distribution .
Notwithstanding any provision of this Agreement to the