regarding significant accounting policies is included in Note 1. As stated in Note 1, the preparation of financial statements requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets, liabilities, revenue and expenses, and related disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities. Management bases its estimates on historical experience and on various assumptions that are believed to be reasonable under the circumstances, the results of which form the basis for making judgments about the carrying values of assets and liabilities that are not readily apparent from other sources. Actual results may differ from these estimates.

 

The Company believes its most critical accounting estimates relate to legal proceedings, the Company’s pension and postretirement obligations, asset impairments and income taxes. Senior management has discussed the development, selection and disclosure of its critical accounting estimates with the Audit Committee of 3M’s Board of Directors.

 

Legal Proceedings:

The categories of claims for which the Company has estimated its probable liability, the amount of its liability accruals, and the estimates of its related insurance receivables are critical accounting estimates related to legal proceedings. Please refer to the section entitled “Accrued Liabilities and Insurance Receivables Related to Legal Proceedings” (contained in “Legal Proceedings” in Note 13) for additional information about such estimates.

 

Pension and Postretirement Obligations:

3M has various company-sponsored retirement plans covering substantially all U.S. employees and many employees outside the United States. The Company accounts for its defined benefit pension and postretirement health care and life insurance benefit plans in accordance with Statement of Financial Accounting Standards (SFAS) No. 87, “Employers’ Accounting for Pensions,” SFAS No. 106, “Employer’s Accounting for Postretirement Benefits Other than Pensions,” in measuring plan assets and benefit obligations and in determining the amount of net periodic benefit cost, and SFAS No. 158, “Employer’s Accounting for Defined Benefit Pension and Other Postretirement Benefit Plans an amendment of FASB Statements No. 87, 88, 106 and 132(R),” which was issued in September 2006 and effective as of December 31, 2006. SFAS No. 158 requires employers to recognize the underfunded or overfunded status of a defined benefit postretirement plan as an asset or liability in its statement of financial position and recognize changes in the funded status in the year in which the changes occur through accumulated other comprehensive income, which is a component of stockholders’ equity.



Pension benefits associated with these plans are generally based primarily on each participant’s years of service, compensation, and age at retirement or termination. Two critical assumptions, the discount rate and the expected return on plan assets, are important elements of expense and liability measurement. The assumed health care trend rate is the most significant postretirement health care assumption. See Note 11 for additional discussion of actuarial assumptions used in