Accounting for Nonpension Postretirement Benefits: Analysis of Lobbying Activities

The objective of this paper is to analyze the lobbying activities of the Financial Accounting Standards Board’s (FASB) constituents to the Exposure Draft of Statement 106, “Employer’s Accounting For Postretirement Benefits Other Than Pensions.” Specifically, the association between the provisions which changed between the Exposure Draft and Statement 106 and the comments received in the 477 comment letters was investigated. The results indicate that the four issues (out of 21 issues) that were modified in whole or in part were strongly opposed by the majority (90%: or greater) of respondents. None of the issues favored by respondents were modified. Opinions among respondent types (industrialists, actuaries, public accountants, insurance representatives, and other), while generally quite similar, did vary on certain issues. Since the FASB did modify issues strongly opposed by respondents, the results provide some faith in FASB’s due process procedure and should encourage constituents to participate in future FASB decisions.