Romney to report financial assets between $190 million and $250 million

WASHINGTON — Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, who made his fortune as a management consultant, is expected to report financial assets between $190 million and $250 million, an adviser said Friday.

But Romney received permission Friday from the Federal Election Commission to delay the official filing of his financial disclosure documents for 45 days beyond a May 15 deadline.

Aides to the former Massachusetts governor said the campaign requested the extension because financial consultants needed time to compile information about his assets that was still incomplete.

An adviser also said Romney has a blind trust for his children and grandchildren that is estimated to hold assets between $70 million and $100 million. Those assets do not benefit Romney or his wife and are not required to be reported in federal financial disclosures.

The adviser spoke on condition of anonymity because the totals have not been officially released.

In 1984, Romney founded Bain Capital, an investment company that helped finance Staples, Domino's Pizza and Brookstone. He then became interim CEO at Bain and Co., the consulting firm where he had worked in the early 1980s. He was credited with pulling Bain and Co., out of financial straits.

Aides said his assets have been held in a blind trust that he and his wife set up when he became governor in 2002. The adviser who provided the estimate of his assets cautioned that the number is based on 2006 and 2005 financial activity and could amount to a bigger total once the disclosure report is filed later this year.