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ARTICLE · 04 JULY 2016

The Importance Of Using Qualified Employee Benefit Plan Auditors

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If your company provides an employee benefit plan, and it has 100 or more participants, you are generally required to have the plan's annual report audited under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974.

United StatesEmployment and HR
Brandon Vahl
Brandon Vahl
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If your company provides an employee benefit plan, and it has 100 or more participants, you are generally required to have the plan's annual report (Form 5500) audited under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA). Plan administrators have fiduciary responsibilities to hire independent qualified public accountants to perform quality audits.

Watch Out for Deficiencies

A recent study by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) revealed that four out of 10 employee benefit plan audit reports contained major deficiencies with respect to one or more relevant Generally Accepted Auditing Standards (GAAS) requirements. These deficiencies would lead to rejection of a plan's annual report and put the plan participants and beneficiaries at risk.

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