At its meeting on March 14, 2018, the FASB completed its redeliberations of certain issues in the amendments on its proposed Accounting Standards Update (ASU)¹ that was issued in January 2016 as part of the Board’s disclosure framework project.

See Deloitte’s February 22, 2018, journal entry for more information about the tentative decisions reached on the proposed ASU at the FASB’s February 14, 2018, meeting.

Tentative Decisions Made

• The Board voted to “remove the disclosure of the effect of a one-percentage-point increase and the effect of a one-percentage-point decrease in the assumed health care cost trend rates for public entities.”
• The Board voted to retain the existing philosophy in ASC 715-20-50-3² and clarify that the “disclosure about aggregate information for underfunded (including unfunded) pension plans should be based on both the projected benefit obligation (PBO) and the accumulated benefit obligation (ABO) benchmarks.”
• The Board authorized the staff to draft a final ASU for vote by written ballot.

Effective Dates

For public business entities, the final ASU will be effective for fiscal years ending after December 15, 2020. For all other entities, the ASU will be effective for fiscal years ending after December 15, 2021. Early adoption is permitted. The effective date would be expressed as “fiscal years ending after” because no amendments are made to the interim disclosure requirements in ASC 715-20.

Refer to the summary of tentative Board decisions for additional information.

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1 FASB Proposed Accounting Standards Update, Changes to the Disclosure Requirements for Defined Benefit Plans.

2 FASB Accounting Standards Codification (ASC) Topic 715, Compensation — Retirement Benefits.