This letter addresses the manner of reporting of employee benefit plans, and pensions in particular, on the SF 278 financial disclosure report as required by the Ethics in Government Act of 1978, as amended. After considering your position and the requirements for and purposes of reporting of assets under Titles II and IV of the Act, this Office has reconsidered its position and states herein the policy governing how employee benefit plans are to be reported. The issue is what constitutes sufficient identification of an interest in a pension to permit legally adequate conflict of interest review.
Similar information is required for the interests of spouses and dependent children.
An interpretation of these provisions by the primary administrative authority must reveal an analysis of the purposes for reporting of the interests. Section 402 of the Act reveals those purposes. In addition, the legislative history of the Act sheds some light on legislative intent and administrative prerogative in establishing the degree of specificity in reporting pension assets. In light of the foregoing, it is decided that a nominee, incumbent or other filer must show as a separate line item any reportable interest in a pension or other employee benefit plan, including the interest of a spouse in such a plan. The values and income for each holding and transaction could be given either for the overall plan with an indication of the percentage interest of the reporting individual or just for the individual's own share.