Audits of Employee Benefit Plans Subject to ERISA

Overview

Auditing employee benefit plans

Employee benefit plan (EBP) audit engagements continue to be scrutinized by regulators and peer reviewers due to a history of noncompliance with applicable professional standards.

Through this course, you can gain the proper skills to perform EBP engagements effectively. You will learn about:

The steps of an EBP audit

Applicable professional standards

ERISA and SEC requirements

Commonly audited plans

You will tap into ways to plan and conduct effective risk-based plan audits to comply with professional standards while maximizing efficiency for defined contribution plan audits. This course focuses specifically on this type of plan given that defined contribution plans, including 401(k) plans, are the predominant plan type subjected to audits.

Applied learning

You will do a deep dive into EBP auditing by working through the plan audit process from engagement acceptance through the archive.

Example forms and reports will be examined to illustrate effective EBP engagements.

Highlights

Audit planning and pre-engagement activities

Risk assessment, including consideration of controls

Auditing the statement of net assets available for benefits

Auditing the statement of changes in net assets available for benefits

Other auditing considerations, including prohibited transactions and tax compliance

The auditor's report

Financial statement disclosures

Supplemental schedules

Prerequisites

None

Designed For

Auditors of employee benefit plans

Practitioners considering adding EBP audits as a service offering

Accountants in business and industry responsible for company benefits

Objectives

Recognize fundamentals of employee benefit plans subject to ERISA.
Identify plan financial statements prepared in accordance with GAAP.
Identify ways to properly plan an audit of ERISA plan financial statements in accordance with applicable professional standards.
Indicate how to audit the statements of net assets available for benefits.
Recognize considerations related to plan investments and management and auditor responsibilities.
Indicate how to audit the statement of changes in net assets available for benefits.
Identify ways to properly report on an audit of ERISA plan financial statements in accordance with applicable professional standards.

Credits

Level

Code

Vendor

Fields of Study

Leader(s):

Randy Dummer, AICPA

Leader Bios

Randy Dummer, AICPA

Randy Dummer, CPA is a Partner with HHM in the accounting and audit area, joining the firm in 2011. He is the engagement partner on several employee benefit plan audits at HHM, as well as for automobile dealerships, manufacturers, not-for-profit organizations and other commercial businesses. He also performs numerous peer reviews and serves on the East Tennessee Review Acceptable Board and the Tennessee Peer Review Committee. He was previously the firm wide leader for the employee benefit plan audit practice at Baker Tilly Virchow Krause, LLP in Appleton, Wisconsin. The practice consisted of approximately 700 engagements performed by personnel in eight different offices. In this role, Randy developed and taught the firms internal training annually for their benefit plan audit staff, updated tools and templates, and served as the primary technical resource for employee benefit plan audit issues. He has extensive experience with audits of employee benefit plans, as well as not-for-profit organizations, and commercial businesses. He has been teaching seminars for the AICPA since 2003. Randy is a 2012-13 recipient of the AICPA Outstanding Instructor Award.

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