LARIMER COUNTY, COLORADO
NOTES TO FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
Year Ended December 31, 1997

NOTE 5 ­ DEFERRED COMPENSATION PLANS:

The County has, available to all regular employees, deferred compensation plans adopted in accordance with Internal Revenue Code Section 457. The plans permit employees to defer a portion of their salary until future years. The deferred compensation is not available to employees until termination, retirement, death or unforeseeable emergency.

All amounts of compensation deferred under the plans, all property and rights purchased with those amounts, and all income attributable to those amounts, property, or rights are (until paid or made available to the employee or other beneficiary) solely the property and rights of the County (without being restricted to the provisions of benefits under the plans), subject only to the claims of the County's general creditors. Participants' rights under the plan are equal to those of the general creditors of the County in an amount equal to the fair market value of the deferred account for each participant.

It is the opinion of the County's legal counsel that the County has no liability for losses under the plan but does have the duty of due care that would be required of an ordinary prudent investor. The County believes that it is unlikely that it will use the assets to satisfy the claims of general creditors in the future.

Pursuant to Governmental Accounting Standards Board Statement 2, "Financial Reporting of Deferred Compensation Plans Adopted under the Provisions of Internal Revenue Code Section 457," the plan assets and a corresponding liability to employees are reported in an agency fund.

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