Posted By: Maria T. Hurd, CPA, RPA What if the Participant Already Spent the Overpayment from the Plan? Ineligible or excess distributions from qualified plans happen all the time. In our last 30 years of auditing retirement plans, our distribution tests have uncovered all the following ineligible or excess distributions: Hardship reason not met: A participant doesn’t … Continued
As mentioned in my previous blog, EPCRS: How to Correct Improper Exclusions of Employees from a 401(k) Plan, the IRS implemented and recently revised the Employer Plan Compliance Resolution System (EPCRS),
The Department of Labor just sent a letter to plan administrators emphasizing the importance of selecting a quality auditor.
Every year, right around December 31st (and closer to January 1!), we sit down and start to draft up resolutions for the upcoming new year. Whether it’s aiming for a healthier life style, setting aside for targets at work, or perhaps being more fiscally responsible, it’s important to not only make these goals, but to have a plan in place for accomplishing them as well.
In May 2015, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employee Benefit Security Administration (EBSA) published the results of its assessment of the quality of retirement plan audits.
When an auditor is considering accepting an engagement to audit financial statements and/or after a new auditor has been engaged to audit financial statements that have been audited by another firm in previous years,
Contrary to popular belief, the audit procedures for a first-time audit of a previously small plan are not limited to the retirement plan’s financial activity for the year under audit.
Corbin Blue may not have been targeting plan participants as his audience when he told us to “push it the limit”, but what would those limits be if he was? Well we know what they are for 2015 thanks to a recent IRS announcement.
When employer-initiated personnel reductions occur and it reduces the number of plan participants by 20% or more, a partial termination of a qualified plan is deemed to have occurred.
Plans that obtain a valid limited scope certification for the completeness and accuracy of investment information from a regulated financial institution such as a bank, trust company, or insurance company, can instruct their auditors to exclude investment information from the scope of their audit.