Statement of Financial Accounting Standards No. 158 is entitled Employers' Accounting for Defined Benefit Pension and Other Postretirement Plans and was an amendment of FASB Statements No. 87, 88, 106, and 132(R), in September of 2006. SFAS No. 158 was written as a result of the "initial phase of a comprehensive project to improve an employer's accounting for defined benefit pension and other postretirement plans" ("Statement of Financial", 2006). "The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) noted that the existing standards on pension and postretirement plans fail to produce representationally faithful and understandable financial statements" (Hurtt, Kreuze, & Langsam, 2007), and as such created SFAS No. 158, with an end goal of more useful and transparent financial statement for creditors, investors and other users (Rossi, 2007). To accomplish this greater usability, there are several objectives this Statement addresses.
             First, it directs an employer to recognize the overfunded or underfunded status of a benefit postretirement plan, defined by a single-employer, as a liability or an asset in its financial statement. In addition, in the years that changes in the funded status occur, employers must recognize the changes in that funded status in their comprehensive income or changes in unrestricted net assets, depending if they are a business entity or a not-for-profit organization. Lastly, employers are direct to measure the funded status of their plan, as of the date of their year-end statement of financial position, with only limited exceptions ("Statement of Financial", 2006).
             SFAS No. 158 makes several improvements to financial reporting. First, financial reporting is improved because the information, in the financial statements, being reported by an employer is more complete, timely and more representation-ally faithful. With this more timely and accurate information...