The Financial Accounting Standards Board today decided to alter FAS 87 and FAS 106, its standards on accounting for pension and retiree medical expenses.
The proposed changes would require companies to report their pension contributions, benefits paid, effects of changes in actuarial assumptions and plan amendments.
Under the current rule, companies must only show the market value of their plans' assets at the beginning and the end of the year and disclose the assumptions they make for life expectancies, increases in salaries and interest rates. Companies also would be expected to separately show the effects of mergers and acquisitions and restructurings on their plans.
The board hopes to have a first draft ready by spring 1997, and the final rule published before 1998, said John Hepp, project manager.
