The Financial Accounting Standards Board has issued an exposure draft of a new statement that would require employers to recognize the overfunded or underfunded positions of defined benefit pensions and other post-retirement plans in their balance sheets.
The proposal would require employers to measure plan assets and obligations as of the date of their financial statements, and report them as such in the body of the financial statements. That differs significantly from current rules, which allow employers to delay recognition of certain changes in plan assets and obligations affecting the cost of providing the promised benefits, reporting the actual funding status in footnotes.
