Baseball season has just started, and retirement plan auditing season will soon kick into high gear. Many plan sponsors don’t see the value of a good auditor; they just see the audit as a cost of doing business. That’s too bad because these days when a plan sponsor becomes aware of an operational problem in
Audits
DOL Plan Audits Updated to Include Several Questions About Compliance with Its Cybersecurity Guidelines
In April, we posted about the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) issuing cybersecurity guidance for employee retirement plans. That is, April 14, 2021. Shortly thereafter, the DOL updated its audit inquiries to include probing questions for plan fiduciaries about their compliance with “hot off the press” agency guidelines.
So, what…
401(k) and 403(b) Plan Hardship Distribution Substantiation: What Will the IRS Be Looking For?
On February 23 and March 7, 2017, the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) issued memoranda to examination agents addressing review of substantiation provided in support of safe harbor hardship distributions under 401(k) and 403(b) plans. Although the memoranda cannot be relied upon as official guidance, they are good reference points to help plan sponsors and third…
DEATH AND TAXES FOR QUALIFIED PLANS
An IRS plan audit uniquely focuses an employer’s mind on the core identity of its qualified retirement plan, which is that of a tax exempt organization, but one whose exemption (or “qualification”) requirements are far pickier than those applicable to one’s favorite charity. Any single material operational violation or non-conforming written plan provision risks disqualification…
THE AUDIT QUALITY REPORT FOR BENEFIT PLANS IS IN AND THE DOL IS NOT HAPPY
The DOL’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (“EBSA”) recently completed its report on the quality of audit work performed on employee benefit plans by independent qualified public accountants (“IQPA”) and was not pleased with the results. EBSA reviewed a sample of the 81,000 audits completed as a part of each plan’s Annual Report/Form 5500 filing requirement…