United States Government Publishing Office publisher pbl distributor dst United States Government Accountability Office author aut Government Organization text government publication eng GAOREPORTS Legislative Agency Publications gao legislative 2010-08-12 U.S. Government Printing Office 2004-03-31 monographic deposited born digital 47 p. GA 1.13:GAO-04-395 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-GAO-04-395 P0b002ee18037a654 f:d04395 DGPO 2010-08-12 2011-03-24 GAOREPORTS-GAO-04-395 machine generated eng fdlp REPORT GAOREPORTS-GAO-04-395 GAO-04-395 Financial disclosure Financial statements Pensions Reporting requirements Government information Comparative analysis Other Written Product A09609

Information about the financial condition of defined benefit pension plans is provided in two sources: regulatory reports to the government and corporate financial statements. The two sources can often appear to provide contradictory information. For example, when pension asset values declined for most large companies between 2000 and 2002, these companies all continued to report positive returns on pension assets in their financial statement calculations of pension expense. This apparent inconsistency, coupled with disclosures about corporate accounting scandals and news of failing pension plans, has raised questions about the accuracy and transparency of available information about pension plans. GAO was asked to explain and describe (1) key differences between the two publicly available sources of information; (2) the limitations of information about the financial condition of defined benefit plans from these two sources; and (3) recent or proposed changes to pension reporting, including selected approaches to pension reporting used in other countries. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-GAO-04-395/html/GAOREPORTS-GAO-04-395.htm https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-GAO-04-395/pdf/GAOREPORTS-GAO-04-395.pdf GAO-04-395 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-GAO-04-395 Other Written Product GAO-04-395; Private Pensions: Publicly Available Reports Provide Useful but Limited Information on Plans' Financial Condition; Financial disclosure Financial statements Pensions Reporting requirements Government information Comparative analysis Title 26 Section 412(b)(2)(B) Title 26 Section 412(b)(5)(B) 26 U.S.C. 412(b)(2)(B) 26 U.S.C. 412(b)(5)(B) Public Law 100-203 Public Law 103-465