Art of the Qualified Plan Audit

Posted by Maria Hurd, CPA, RPA Updated May 22, 2019 First Things First: The Engagement Letter   The new audit standard, Forming an Opinion and Reporting on Financial Statements of Employee Benefit Plans Subject to ERISA, effective for plan years ending on or after December 15, 2020, will require certain management representations as a pre-condition … Continued

Posted by Maria Hurd, CPA Disclaimer: All blog posts are valid as of the date published. In a highly regulated industry with complicated rules that always have exceptions (except when the exception does not apply) it is inevitable that sooner or later a failure to follow the plan document will take place. Such operational errors … Continued

In this world, nothing can be said to be certain, except death, taxes, and retirement plan operational errors. Two decades of plan audits have shown time and time again that even the most accurate plan sponsor is not immune from making one of the common errors.

By special request, following is a summary of the basic available safe harbor formulas, with no extra editorials. See bullet points for information about enhanced match opportunities.

When auditors identify operational errors, clients and service providers often ask whether we can ignore them since they are immaterial to the financial statements. 

In response to the DOL’s findings regarding ERISA plan audit deficiency rate, the AICPA has embarked on an initiative to improve audit quality

Internal Revenue Code Section 401(k) was added to the tax law as part of President Jimmy Carter’s Revenue Act of 1978.

The Auditing Standards Board created a special task force in 2015 to consider a proposal to improve the quality of employee benefit plan audits by strengthening the EBP auditors’ report.

“The buck stops here” is a phrase that was popularized by U.S. President Harry S. Truman, who kept a sign with that phrase on his desk in the Oval Office.

Some people believe you can never get enough of a good thing.