Art of the Qualified Plan Audit

Discrimination. It’s a concept that most people don’t associate with retirement plan savings.

The use of the wrong definition of compensation is the most common error found in employee benefit plan audits, and it can be a very costly mistake to correct in accordance with the provisions of the IRS’ Employee Plan Compliance Resolution System (EPCRS).

Plan administrators probably view the management representation letter as a document they must sign so they likely do so without reading it closely.

Along with the presidential election on Tuesday, November 8, another election that participants should have on their mind is the deferral for their retirement plan.

One of the most common operational errors when administering retirement plans is the failure to implement a participant’s elective deferral election or change in percentage.

Most plan sponsors know that their retirement plans are subject to discrimination tests, generally designed to prevent highly compensated employees (HCEs) from obtaining a benefit that is disproportionately favorable when compared to the benefits of the non-highly compensated employees (NHCEs).

In a previous blog, DOL Audit Quality Study: Employee Benefit Plan Auditors Are not Making the Grade, we discussed the results of the 2015 Audit Quality Study performed by the Department of Labor (DOL).

It may be counter-intuitive, but reducing the number of employees who are eligible to participate in a retirement plan could be the greater good in certain situations.

Posted by  Maria T. Hurd, CPA Juliet: “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet.” Let us consider what a name is. It is the grouping of letters that represent the identification of a person, object, or entity. However, the words may not be exactly representative … Continued

Every year, at least one retirement plan service provider tells us that a plan qualifies for a limited scope audit because their company has an SOC 1 report.