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.

Notice

This course is offered by a 3rd party vendor and will not be accessible in the My CPE Tracker section of the ISCPA website. Course access information will be emailed directly to you by AICPA.

Fees

Credits

Level

Code

Vendor

Fields of Study

Leader(s):

Randy Dummer, Quality Control Partner

Leader Bios

Randy Dummer, Quality Control Partner

Randy Dummer, CPA, quality control partner in the accounting and assurance department at Henderson, Hutcherson & McCullough (HHM), joined the firm in 2011 and leads key initiatives including the peer review practice and employee benefit plan audit niche. Randy is a nationally recognized employee benefit plan audit specialist and serves as a discussion leader for the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA), earning the AICPA Outstanding Discussion Leader Award eight times. He instructs the Audits of 401(k) Plans webcast and teaches employee benefit plan audit courses. Randy serves as audit partner for 401(k), 403(b), ESOP, defined benefit pension and health and welfare plan audits. As captain for approximately 50 peer reviews each year, Randy helps CPA firms strengthen accounting, auditing and attestation quality. He serves on the peer review committee of the Tennessee Society of Certified Public Accountants and is an approved ERISA audit subject matter expert for the AICPA enhanced oversight project.

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