Art of the Qualified Plan Audit

Posted by Maria T. Hurd, CPA As published in the CPA Success article titled Employee Benefit Plan Audits Still Don’t Make the Grade, the Department of Labor’s Chief Accountant Ian Dingwall has stated that plan audits continue to show a 30 percent deficiency rate. Specifically, he enumerated problems including lack of documentation, inadequate testing of hard-to-value … Continued

Posted by Chris Ciminera Benjamin Franklin once said, “In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” Another certainty that comes to mind is change, specifically, changes to the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) Accounting Standards. Every year, accountants’ inboxes are inundated with various Accounting Standards Updates (or ASUs for … Continued

Posted by Maria T. Hurd, CPA Much like the African proverb that has been in existence for centuries: “It takes a village to raise a child”, the success of a retirement plan’s administration cannot be attributed to a single person or company. Often, third party administrators tell their clients that they will give the auditors … Continued

Posted by Maria T. Hurd, CPA The U.S. Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration has begun a new enforcement initiative to monitor the quality of audits of 403(b) plans subject to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). The Department of Labor’s (DOL) initiative to review the quality of employee benefit plan financial audits … Continued

Posted by Saaib Uppal, Staff Accountant After weeks of internal deliberation and planning, I had finally gained the courage to ask a particular girl to my high school prom. I was very nervous and she replied with, ‘”Maybe.” What does that word mean? Is it a positive “maybe”? Is it a, “I don’t want to … Continued

Posted by Saaib Uppal, Staff Accountant Webster’s dictionary defines a commitment as “an agreement or pledge to do something in the future.”  What Webster doesn’t mention is anything regarding the length of that commitment or the procedures for an opt-out.  Circumstances and factors often arise that make it difficult and even impossible at times to keep a commitment. … Continued