Art of the Qualified Plan Audit

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

Increased Retirement Savings; Enhanced Self-Correction of Operational Failures; Decreased Costs to Implement a Plan The SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022 (Act) was signed into law on December 29, 2022. The Act strives to increase retirement savings, improve retirement plan operation and correction rules, and decrease the cost of setting up a retirement plan. Plan amendments … 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: Saaib T. Uppal, CPA, QKA IRS Announces Increases on Benefits and Contributions Dollar Limitations for 2023 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 2023: Plan Limits RETIREMENT & SOCIAL SECURITY 2023 Limit 2022 Limit 2021 Limit … Continued

Posted By: Christopher Ciminera, CPA We’ve now come to the final act of our play and the last blog in our series on retirement plan benefit legislation updates. We’ve covered the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018, the SECURE Act, the CARES Act, and in the last blog we covered the updates to EPCRS with Revenue … Continued

Posted By: Christopher Ciminera, CPA In the last blog, we covered the storm that COVID-19 brought and the CARES Act legislation that Congress provided to help individuals obtain needed access to retirement funds. The storm clouds dissipated slightly and the IRS brought a little more sunshine with some positive changes to the EPCRS correction program. … Continued

Posted by Maria T. Hurd, CPA Yes, the Audit Extends to Excluded 403(b) Employees: Testing Compliance with Universal Availability It’s never a good sign when an employer sponsoring a 403(b) plan says: “You don’t need to see backup for employees who are excluded from the plan.” Ohh! But we do! Not often, but sometimes, clients … Continued

Posted By: Christopher Ciminera, CPA Act 3 – The CARES Act In the last blog, we covered the remainder of the SECURE Act provisions. By itself, it changed the landscape of our play. But an unexpected storm came in the form of the COVID-19 pandemic creating a major cloud of uncertainty. The COVID-19 pandemic created … 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