FASB Statement No. 132 simplifies benefits disclosures

In February 1998, the FASB issued Statement of Financial Accounting Standards No. 132, Employers' Disclosures about Pensions and Other Postretirement Benefits. The new standard is designed to streamline pension and other postretirement benefits disclosures in public and nonpublic entities' financial statements. For nonpublic entities, the statement eliminates separate disclosures of the components of net periodic benefit cost, eliminates the disclosure of the components of benefit obligations and of alternative obligation measures, eliminates the disclosure of plan provisions, adds the disclosure of comprehensive income, eliminates the disclosure of sensitivity to changes in healthcare trend rates, and standardizes the disclosures for pension and other postretirement benefits. Financial managers and their organizations' actuaries and auditors should work together to determine which disclosures their organizations should make to be in compliance with FASB Statement No. 132.