Your Success is Our Business.

Area of Expertise:

Employee Benefit Plan Audits

Federal law (ERISA) requires most employee benefit plans with 100 or more participants to have an audit as part of their Form 5500 filing obligation. For those plans, one of the most important duties of the plan administrator is hiring an independent auditor for the plan. A quality audit helps ensure the financial integrity of a plan,  protects plan participants and assets, and  assists the plan administrator in carrying out its fiduciary responsibilities.

The Department of Labor (DOL) has published a helpful website to assist plan administrators in selecting their auditor:
http://www.dol.gov/ebsa/publications/selectinganauditor.html. Quoting from the DOL,  Frequently, audits are found to be deficient because of the failure of the auditor to conduct tests in areas unique to employee benefit plans… A well performed audit is a vital protection for your employee benefit plan. It is in your best interest and that of your plan’s participants to maximize the results of the audit”. So the question is:

WHY SHOULD YOU CHOOSE US?

QUALITY

Faw Casson is an active member of the AICPA Employee Benefit Plan Audit Quality Center. As such, we are held to a much higher standard of quality than non-member firms in our policies, procedures and continuing professional education related to the performance of benefit plan audits. These standards are the benchmark of our commitment to quality performance. For more a more specific outline of the Center’s requirements, and why this should be a defining criteria in the selection of your audit firm, please visit the Center’s website at http://ebpaqc.aicpa.org/  The firm is required to undergo quality peer reviews, and this process is specifically required to include reviews of ERISA audits. Faw Casson has consistently received the best available report.

EXPERIENCE

We have experience with all types of plans, including:

• Defined Benefit Plans including Cash Balance Plans
•  Defined Contribution Plans, including 401(k)
•  Profit Sharing and  Money Purchase Plans
•  Health and Welfare / Medical Plans
•  Plans implemented under collective bargaining agreements (Union Plans)

INDEPENDENCE

We are independent of other Plan service providers – we do not administer plans or sell any other products or services related to benefit plans

TRAINING

We annually attend the AICPA’s national Conference on Employee Benefit Plans. This conference is attended by over 1000 of the country’s top professionals serving this unique field.

We also annually attend the AICPA’s national Employee Benefit Plan Accounting, Auditing and Regulatory Update Conference. This conference is held in Washington, DC, and is strongly supported by the Department of Labor.

Our staff also receives other specialized training, in-house and through AGN International, so that each member of an engagement team is knowledgeable in the unique issues and performance of benefit plan audits.

TO SUMMARIZE, OUR AUDITS ARE

Minimally disruptive to our clients – we are aware and considerate of the day-to-day operational pressures already placed on your finance, accounting and personnel departments.

Fully compliant with DOL regulations – rest easy knowing that your fiduciary responsibilities are being met.

Designed to consider potential internal control weaknesses, which we then bring to the attention of management and assist in resolving

Lastly, please note that we do not need to be your company’s primary accounting firm to audit your benefit plans. Several of our larger plan audits have national firms as their primary accounting firm, but utilize our firm for their plan audits because:

• Our rates are lower than those of the national firms
• The benefit plan audit is the priority for us, rather than being just an add-on to the company audit
• They like working with us – we are accessible, knowledgeable, and friendly!

For more information about our services to the Employee Benefit Plan Audits industry contact: