Posted by Maria T. Hurd, CPA, RPA Does your 401(k) or 403(b) plan auditor belong to the AICPA’s Employee Benefit Plan Audit Quality Center (EBPAQC)? To demonstrate their commitment to quality in the performance of ERISA audits, 2,600 CPA firms, about a third of the firms that perform EBP audits, have become members of the Employee Benefit Plan Audit Quality … Continued
Posted by Maria T. Hurd, CPA, RPA The AICPA Employee Benefit Plan Digital Badges: How can plan sponsors evaluate prospective auditors who are equally credentialed with digital badges? Is your auditor a Jack of all trades, but a master of none? As the results of the DOL studies on audit quality shift the industry focus to the qualifications of employee … Continued
Posted by Maria T. Hurd, CPA, RPA Testing the work of a specialist in a retirement plan audit: How much expertise does the financial statement auditor need? Service providers to the employee benefit plan (EBP) industry are often highly intelligent people that talk in “code”: Internal Revenue Code and ERISA Regulation sections. The legislation that regulates retirement plans encompasses … Continued
In “The DOL can use large retirement plan filings to uncover missing welfare plan filings”, we discussed the importance of plan sponsors not forgetting to file a Form 5500 for their health and welfare plans when filing the annual Form 5500 for their retirement plan.
With the October 15th deadline in the past and a majority of Form 5500s having been filed, many plan sponsors, auditors, and third-party administrators have breathed a sigh of relief.
As required by IRC Section 415, the IRS has announced cost-of-living adjustments that should be noted for retirement planning purposes.
We live in an ever-changing world. Some areas which will most likely change many times during your lifetime include your car, job, the place where you live, your hobbies, your relationships with others, and even the organizations you associate with.
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.