FASB Requires More Pension Plan Disclosures

The Financial Accounting Standards Board, which sets the country’s accounting regulations, ruled Tuesday that companies must provide more details about their defined-benefit pension plans every quarter.

Previous rules allowed companies to spread out pension gains and losses over several years. This practice helped some companies mask losses in the last few years.

Companies will have to define their plan assets, benefit obligations, cash flows, benefit costs and other relevant information at least four times a year.

They must make their first annual report with the added information in the fiscal year ending after Dec. 15 and the first quarterly report in the first fiscal quarter after the end of that fiscal year.

The board said the rule was issued in response to concerns raised by investors about the need for more information on pension plans.

The new standard requires companies to provide a breakdown of plan assets by category and provide expected rates of return.

Also, cash flow statements will include projections of future benefit payments and an estimate of contributions to be made in the next year to fund pension and other post-retirement benefit plans.