Art of the Qualified Plan Audit

On January 31, 2024, Hacienda, (the Puerto Rico Department of the Treasury) issued Internal Revenue Circular Letter No. 24-01 (CL IR 24-01) announcing the 2024 limits for Puerto Rico-qualified retirement plans according to Section 1081.01(h) of the Puerto Rico Internal Revenue Code of 2011, as amended. Following are the applicable 2024 limits for qualified defined … Continued

The Office of the Chief Accountant (OCA) in the Employee Benefit Security Administration (EBSA) of the Department of Labor (DOL) has released a 2023 Audit Quality Study covering the quality of audits being performed by independent qualified public accountants (IQPAs).  This is the fourth study to be performed with prior studies being performed in 2015, … Continued

Not really a good option: The Online Calculator is convenient, and also inexpensive, so…use it for the HCEs! Practitioners tend to use the DOL’s online calculator for late deferral deposits, since EPCRS permits estimates, but to the extent one is being practical and making participants whole, the cheaper result of the online calculator should not … Continued

But It’s My Money! Business owners and Highly Compensated Employees (HCEs) are often shocked to hear that they cannot contribute the maximum 401(k) or 403(b) deferral ($23,000 and $22,500 for 2024 and 2023, respectively) because their plan did not pass the discrimination tests. Much to their surprise, through the Actual Deferral Percentage (ADP) and the … Continued

Waiting for the other shoe to drop is an idiom that means to wait for an expected and inevitable event to occur, usually a negative one. The idiom comes from the idea of a person being disturbed by a neighbor who dropped one shoe on the floor and is waiting for the second shoe to … Continued

Much like a good cup of coffee in the morning gets me going out the door, ready for retirement plan audits, Congress added some “PEP” to the retirement plan industry. But will the “PEP” end up being decaffeinated? Only time will tell. The SECURE Act For good or bad, changes to the retirement plan industry … Continued

The Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement (SECURE) Act, signed into law in December 2019, brought about significant changes to retirement planning in the United States. Among its many provisions, one notable alteration has positively impacted Roth 401(k) accounts – the elimination of Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs). Understanding Roth 401(k)s Roth 401(k) accounts combine … Continued

In our previous blog post, Pooled Employer Plans (PEPs): The Basics, we outlined the basics of a PEP and will not dig into the details of the financial reporting requirements for these plans. The administrator of a PEP must file an annual Form 5500, Annual Returns/Reports of Employee Benefit Plan, to which the PEP administrator … Continued

The IRS has announced cost-of-living adjustments that should be noted for retirement planning purposes. Below is a chart that outlines employee benefit plan limits for 2024: Plan Limits RETIREMENT & SOCIAL SECURITY 2024 Limit 2023 Limit 2022 Limit Section 401(k), 403(b), 457(b) Elective Deferrals $23,000 $22,500 $20,500 401(k) or 403(b) Catch-Up Contributions $7,500 $7,500 $6,500 … Continued

PEPs were established in section 101 of the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act of 2019 (SECURE Act), which amended ERISA and the IRC, to allow unrelated employers to join a defined contribution retirement plan maintained by a pooled plan provider (PPP) acting as the plan’s administrator and named fiduciary. A PEP, as … Continued