Archive

We have been blogging since 2011 and have compiled a large archive of posts surrounding employee benefit plan audit topics. Do you still have a question that is not answered in one of the posts below? Contact us with your question and we will be happy to answer it in an upcoming post.

• Auditors’ Tests of Beginning Balances When a Small Plan Becomes a Large Plan
• The Special 15-Year 403(b) Catch-Up Contribution: How does it really work?
• The Voluntary Fiduciary Correction Program – How to File an Application
• The Voluntary Fiduciary Correction Program – Overview
• Death, Taxes and Plan Errors
• A Plan Sponsor’s Guide to Assessing the Qualifications of Retirement Plan Auditors
• DOL Audit Quality Study and Recommendations for Improvement
• DOL Audit Quality Study: Employee Benefit Plan Auditors Are not Making the Grade
• One 60-Day IRA Rollover Per Year Is The Final Answer
• What Goes in the Denominator? Complying with the Allocation Rules for Distributions from Qualified Plans With After-Tax Accounts
• Comparison of Retirement and Deferred Compensation Plans
• Qualified Plan Distributions: IRS Issues Guidance on Allocation of After-Tax and Pretax Amounts
• Compensation Issues – Revisited
• Fixing Common Plan Mistakes – Failure to Obtain Spousal Consent
• Push it to the Limit (for 2015!)
• Trustee Travel Expense Reimbursements
• Special Section 457(b) Catchup for Government Plans
• Avoiding the Hardship of Correcting Hardship Distribution Violations
• Unforeseeable Emergency Distributions from 457(b) Plans
• Patient Centered Outcome Institute Fees Due by July 31, 2014
• Fraud Interviews
• The Basics of Partial Plan Terminations
• Fair Value: Why it Matters for Participant-Directed Accounts
• Qualified Plans Should Not Hope to get a Qualified Audit Opinion
• Advanced Limited Scope Audit Issues
• Does your ERISA 403(b) Plan need a financial statement audit?
• Maybe…Maybe Not – Building a Safe Harbor Escape Clause
• WEBINAR TODAY March 31, 2014: Is it audit time? Tips to help you become an expert
• Limited-Scope Certification vs. SSAE 16 Report: Not Mutually Exclusive
• Explaining Discrimination Test Refunds to HCEs
• Don’t Forget Your Little Sister – Welfare Plan 5500 Filings (Updated 12/17/14)
• The DOL can use large retirement plan filings to uncover MISSING welfare plan filings
• Plan Officials: Don’t File Your W-3s Just Yet!
• Late deposits of employee deferrals: Paying the Piper
• Counting participants is not as easy as 1, 2, 3!!!
• Employers that Participate in a Multiemployer Plan: Financial Statement Disclosures
  You can’t just WISH yourself into SAFE HARBOR PLAN status
• Does your auditor exceed EBPAQC requirements?
• 2014 Plan Limits
• Inheriting a Retirement Account
• Making the Other Half Whole
• EPCRS: Participant Loan Corrections
• What the Heck is a QNEC?
• EPCRS: How to Correct Improper Exclusions of Employees from a 401(k) Plan
• What Statute of Limitations?
• Do you owe the PCORI Fee which is due by July 31, 2013?
• TIAA-CREF Plan Documents – Cat Fishing?
• 403(b) Plans: Universal Availability Exclusions
• How to Scratch that Match
• A Primer on Forms of Distribution – Questions at Funerals
• A Primer on Forms of Distribution – Questions from Those Approaching or At Retirement Age
• A Primer on Forms of Distribution – Questions from Younger Family Members
• Compensation: The Missing Link – Part 2
• Compensation: The Missing Link – Part 1
• Three Strikes and You’re Out (of money!)
• Protect Your Retirement
• How Does the American Taxpayer Relief Act affect Retirement Plans?
• From Choo Choo Trains to Required Minimum Distributions
• Important 2013 Benefit Plan Deadline Timeframes
• With Change Comes More Change! – Form 5558
• Will You Hit or Miss the Target?
• Don’t Forget to Distribute Safe Harbor Notices
• 2013 Plan Limits
• Playing it Safe with Rollovers of Mandatory Distributions
• Moving the Goal Posts of Humaneness
• IN or AND…What a difference a word makes
• A Deadline and a Lifeline
• Retirement Plans – The Basics are Actually Quite Complicated
• Information Request Letters
• I don’t want to grow up, I want to be a small plan!
• But I hired you to audit THIS year…
• Limited Scope Audits: Worthless or Worthwhile?
• New Disclosures Required for Employers Participating in Multiemployer Benefit Plans
• Sorting Out the Alphabet Soup of Mutual Fund Share Classes
• Well, What Do We Do Now?
• Be Wary of Hard-To-Value Investments in Self-Directed Brokerage Accounts
• Mind Watching My Stuff for a Minute?
• “Can You Hear Me Now?” – Part II: Summary Plan Description and Summary of Material Modifications – Electronic Delivery
• Can You Hear Me Now? – Summary Plan Description and Summary of Material Modifications
• Top-Heavy Testing
• Employee Benefit Plan Bonding & Fiduciary Liability Insurance
• Drexel University – The Corporate Retirement Plan Industry – Regulatory Changes and Fiduciary Best Practices
• Limited Scope Audits
• Service Organization Control (SOC) Reports Help to Gain Understanding
• A CE Event You Won’t Want to Miss
• Make Sure Your Employee Benefit Plan Audit Makes the Grade
• Fair Value Measurements and Disclosures – ASU 2010-06
  Timeliness of Deposits
• …about your deductibility question: the answer is NO!
• Tax Filing Requirements for Voluntary Employee Benefit Association Trusts
• It Takes a Village…
• Who Audits the Auditors?
• “Maybe” Notices for Safe Harbor Plans
• How to Stop a Safe Harbor Non-Elective Contribution
• K.I.S.S.: Keep It Simple and Straightforward with Safe Harbor Plan Designs