The Effect of Statement No. 87 on the Financial Reports of Early Adopters.

Abstract This article examines the effect of Statement No. 87 on the financial reports of corporations in the U.S., that started using it in 1986. Despite claims of adverse economic consequences, the Financial Accounting Standards Board issued Statement No. 87 in late December 1985. Some of the more controversial provisions of the statement require all companies sponsoring defined benefit pension plans to use a uniform method for computing pension expense rather than selecting from several equally acceptable alternatives, to disclose the service cost, interest cost, actual return, and amortization components of pension expense, and to provide additional disclosures about the funding status of the company's pension plans. Analysis of the disclosures and financial statement effect of Statement No. 87 on these early adopters will provide a basis for later comparison with the effects of initial application on companies that deferred application. The objective of this article is to describe the effect of Statement No. 87 on the financial reports of corporations that adopted the statement in 1986 and to assess the usefulness of the new pension information for evaluating the cost of plan sponsorship and the funding sufficiency of large corporate pension plans.