2018 Current Practice Issues and Update for Audits of Employee Benefit Plans (CPI)

8.00 CPE Credit Hours

The Department of Labor oversight and monitoring of audit quality has intensified and will continue for Employee benefit plan audits for the foreseeable future. EBP audits present a myriad of practice issues and risks that practitioners must address. This advanced course provides guidance and best practices in planning, performing and documenting these audits. The course will discuss skills and knowledge to:

• Stay current on regulatory initiatives, findings and actions
• Identify and address recurring difficult and complex accounting, auditing and financial reporting issues in EBP engagements
• Effectively perform required auditing procedures
• Document evidence obtained to support the opinion
• Identify deficiencies and focus on best practices
• Report prohibited transactions

Designed For
Practitioners in public accounting firms that audit employee benefit plans.

Objective

Participants will be able to:

• Address and implement current ASU (FASB) updates
• Identify current auditing issues with common sense solutions
• Prepare adequate and sufficient audit documentation that will satisfy the professional standards for documentation and the DOL
• Avoid mistakes and deficiencies in financial reporting and disclosures noted by DOL Audit Quality Study and Peer Reviews

Highlights

• Current DOL and EBSA programs; compliance initiatives and regulatory requirements
• A review of recently issued and proposed accounting and auditing standards
• Recent changes to the EBP Audit Guide
• Form 5500 filing requirements, issues, and changes
• Common audit challenges and risk areas inherent in benefit plan audits
• Reporting and disclosure of ASC 820 fair value accounting measurement issues
• Review of audit planning procedures
• Identification of current risk issues including fraud in EBP audits
• Understanding the SOC report; responding with adequate procedures and documentation
• Deficiencies in reporting and disclosure and how to avoid/eliminate
• Understanding the new peer reviewer requirements and the impact on EBP audits
• Best practices in EBP financial statement reporting and disclosure with examples

Prerequisites
Experience in conducting audits of employee benefit plans

Advanced Preparation
None

Developer
Kaplan Loscalzo

Presenters
Rebecca Lee, Kaplan Loscalzo

Level of Knowledge
Intermediate