Question

SFAS 158 made revisions on how pension plansand postretirement benefit information should be reported in thefinancial statements.

Refer to Fatality Analysis Reporting System(FARS) to identify the changes that were made, both within thefinancial statements themselves and in the requireddisclosures.

Based on your analysis of the informationprovided, answer the following:

• What are the currentrequirements for reporting pension plan and postretirement benefitinformation in the financial statements?
• What are the changes thatwere made from previous reporting requirements?
• Have these changes improved reporting for the users offinancial statements?

In your evaluation, you should consider howthe changes either improved or did not improve the characteristicsof usefulness and understandability identified in the conceptualframework for financial reporting, such as thefollowing:

• Representationalfaithfulness
• Verifiability
• Conservatism
• Full disclosure
• Predictive or feedbackvalue
• The definitions of financial statementelements