Audits of Employee Benefit Plans Subject to ERISA
- 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 commonly audited types of plans, including:
- Defined contribution plans
- Health and welfare benefit plans 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.
Learning Objectives
- Recognize key terms and definitions related to ERISA plans.
- Identify the different types of employee benefit plans (EBPs).
- Recognize operational and compliance elements of ERISA plans
- Identify the basic financial statements for all ERISA plans.
- Recognize differences between GAAP and ERISA reporting.
- Identify the risks of material misstatement related to financial statement line items on the statements of net assets available for benefits.
- Recognize audit procedures commonly performed in a defined contribution retirement plan (DC plan) audit, including notes receivable from plan participants.
- Identify audit requirements when using the work of a specialist.
Major Topics
- Audit planning and pre-engagement activities
- Risk assessment, including consideration of internal control
- 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
