Art of the Qualified Plan Audit

The Rule Individuals who turn age 72 after December 31, 2022, AND who reach age 73 before January 1, 2033, have a compulsory RMD age of 73. What It Means Individuals who turn 73 during 2023 must take an RMD for 2023 by April 1, 2024, but individuals who turn 72 during 2023 do not … Continued

Retirement Readiness vs. Immediate Financial Needs Life is a balancing act. Regulators strive to fight leakage by imposing penalties on early distributions, but they also don’t want to add to legitimate unforeseen and extreme emergency situations by imposing penalties when participants are in trouble. At the same time, regulators don’t want to impose administrative burdens … Continued

SECURE 2.0: Mandatory Automatic Enrollment Coupled with Corrective Contribution Relief Employees Plan to Make the Right Choice…Later When it comes to choosing to save for retirement, people tend to be short-sighted. Many eligible employees don’t choose to participate in their employer-sponsored retirement plans. Behavioral finance studies show that people tend to imagine themselves making the … Continued

Retirement plan administration is not a costless endeavor. Plan sponsors must administer the retirement plan following plan provisions, legislative requirements, and participant elections. To help administer the plan, plan sponsors hire service providers to help with recordkeeping, custody of assets, investment advisor tracking, and auditing the plan. Regulatory authorities want to promote retirement readiness with … Continued

Enhanced Correction Options: I Didn’t Know What I Was Missing! Mistakes happen…all the time, especially in retirement plan administration. For years, I have been thankful for the self-correction opportunities granted by the IRS Program, the Employee Plan Compliance Resolution System. With each update to the program, my clients would benefit from additional opportunities to self-correct … Continued

Plan sponsors, third-party administrators, and other Form 5500 preparers take note! DOL representatives indicated that in some instances Part III – Accountant’s Opinion, Line 3(a) and 3(b) of the Schedule H is being filled out incorrectly. Marcus Aron (Division of Accounting Services) and Scott Albert (Division of Reporting Compliance) indicated at the 2023 Joint TE/GE … Continued

Posted by Maria T. Hurd, CPA “Retirement readiness is important for everybody” – this is a statement that didn’t make it to the searchable lists of universal truths, but should have. The 403(b) plan regulations realized the benefits of inclusion a long time ago, providing that if any employee can elect to make elective deferrals, then … Continued

Posted By: Maria Hurd, CPA But They Got the Money in their Paycheck, Why Should They Get Even More? When an organization does not give employees the opportunity to make salary deferrals, or ignores their election to make salary deferral contributions, correcting the mistake in accordance with the IRS Correction Program called Employee Plan Compliance … Continued

Is your auditor a Jack of all trades, but a master of none?

Posted By: Maria T Hurd, CPA, RPA Improved EPCRS : More Self-Correction Options Inside the Box Perfection is aspirational, especially when it comes to retirement plan administration. That is why 30 years ago, in 1991, the IRS created the EPCRS (Employee Plan Compliance Resolution System), a mechanism for plan sponsors to fix mistakes. Compliance with … Continued