Art of the Qualified Plan Audit

In my last blog, Almost There: Moving Closer to the New EBP Audit Standard , I gave a brief background on what led to SAS 13X – Statement on Auditing Standards Forming an Opinion and Reporting on Financial Statements of Employee Benefit Plans Subject to ERISA (“Final Balloted Draft”) and its proposed changes to the audit report.

The Auditing Standards Board (ASB) has released a Final Balloted Draft of Statement on Auditing Standards, Forming an Opinion and Reporting on Financial Statements of Employee Benefit Plans Subject to ERISA ( Final Balloted Draft).

I recently heard a discussion about variances on how people pronounce certain words.

I had the honor of being selected as a resource for an article “Avoidance Strategies: How advisers can help sponsors steer clear of common plan errors” in the May/June issue of Plan Adviser magazine,

Let’s face it, humans make mistakes. John Wooden said “If you’re not making mistakes, then you’re not doing anything.” In my blog titled “Internal Controls in a Retirement Plan,” I pointed out the importance of controls at the plan sponsor and its service providers to help prevent mistakes in plan administration, help prevent fraud within the plan…

There is a popular philosophical question that asks if a tree falls in a forest, and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?

As a plan sponsor, you may know that, generally, if your plan covers 100 employees or more, your plan is considered a large plan and requires audited financial statements to be attached to the 5500 filing.

As auditors, we are required to review the controls in place at a plan sponsor of a retirement plan and its service providers to assess the risk of material misstatement resulting from control risk. In doing so, we constantly evaluate the adequacy of the control structure and recommend improvements to strengthen the processes to prevent errors.

It is not often that we can give our clients good news as a result of new guidance from the Internal Revenue Service, but thanks to Notice 2016-16, Mid-Year Changes to Safe Harbor Plans and Safe Harbor Notices, we have fantastic news.

Users of accounting information make informed decisions using information contained in the financial statements.