Employee Benefit Plans Conference 2019

This all-day pre-conference workshop is geared toward individuals interested in a general overview and update of the audit, accounting and reporting requirements for employee benefit plans. Auditors new to employee benefit plan audits, experienced auditors interested in a refresher course, benefit plan professionals as well as service providers who want to understand the audit process, could benefit from this workshop. It provides a basic understanding of the requirements for all types of EBP audits based on the AICPA's Employee Benefit Plans - Accounting and Audit Guide as well as DOL requirements. Participants will have ample time to discuss specific issues and resolutions for real-life employee benefit problems. Attending this workshop will help participants choose beneficial sessions from the general conference to tailor the conference experience.

This session will address employee benefit plan audit quality issues based on findings from the DOL and peer review engagements and unique accounting and reporting issues.

• Recognize the more common types of EB plans.
• Indicate appropriate planning and substantive audit procedures with respect to investments, contributions, distributions, and benefit obligations.
• Recall ERISA regulations.
• Identify problems and potential resolutions within EBP audits.

This half-day Form 5500 workshop will provide a practical review of the Form 5500 and related schedules. We will explore common practitioner questions and Form 5500 and related schedules' pitfalls. The session is designed for plan administrators, auditors, and preparers who want to learn about the Form 5500 as well as expand their knowledge of the Form 5500 filings.

• Identify Form 5500/5500-SF specifics
• Identify changes to the 2017 Form 5500
• Use Form 5500 related schedules and Form 8955-SSA
• Use the Electronic Filing/EFAST2 system and determine when DOL enforcement may occur

This workshop has it all: hands-on training in specific areas, professional development skills, building credibility, fostering relationships, and communication tips. This workshop is designed to give technical and soft skills to those professionals who are fairly new to employee benefit plans, or who have much audit experience but are new to employee benefit plan audits. This is an ideal precursor to the main conference’s Fundamental Track. The EEBP workshop will be led by EBP professionals with extensive experience in both accounting, auditing and tax practices within employee benefit plans. Mentors and experts will be on hand so you leave this afternoon with a cadre of new skills and competencies. Emerging EBP participants will have an opportunity to interact directly with the workshop leaders on a wide variety of EBP topics during the conference and after the conference - this is a great way to expand your EBP expertise networking.

• Identify sessions to attend during remaining days of conference.
• Indicate your goals in attending the conference to mentors and experts.
• Recall EBP training and apply to rest of conference.

Session will discuss trends and best practices from the cybersecurity and information privacy arenas.

• Recall the latest trends affecting organizations and individuals (vis-à-vis cybersecurity and privacy).
• Select the leading practices for dealing with these trends in your company or your client's company.
• Indicate what practitioners can do to safeguard their own organizational and personal data.

The new EBP reporting framework addresses the auditor's responsibilities for forming an opinion and reporting on ERISA plan financial statements, including the form and content of the report when management elects to have an ERISA section 103(a)(3)(C) audit performed.

• Analyze the requirements of the new EBP reporting framework.
• Differentiate the new form and content of the EBP reports compared to the current standard.
• Determine when it is appropriate to use the ERISA section in the audit report.

This session will review the current rules and regulations regarding fringe benefits, including the ability of an employee to exclude the value of such benefits from income and the ability of an employer to deduct the cost of those benefits. Special emphasis will be placed on the Tax Cut and Jobs Act changes affecting fringe benefits, specifically meals and entertainment expenses, qualified transportation fringe benefits and moving expenses.

• Identify the fringe benefits that are best for your client based on the tax treatment of such benefits for the employer and the employee.
• Apply current rules and regulations to your clients in order to assist in designing a cost efficient fringe benefit plan.

Partners, are you starting your audit off properly? Most practitioners answer, "yes." However, more than a decade after the risk assessment standards were issued, the AICPA Peer Review team found that more than half of all firms fail to comply with AU-C Section 315 or 330.

At the core of every audit are the goals of identifying, assessing, and responding to risks of material misstatement. Ensure your EBP audits comply with risk assessment standards. The discussion will include misconceptions commonly held by senior-level practitioners and how to avoid these common areas of non-compliance.

• Interpret commonly misapplied requirements of AU-C Sections 315 and 330.
• Contrast common areas of non-compliance found by AICPA Peer Review team research to your EBP audit performance.
• Assess practical application of the standards in EBP audits.

An in-depth look at 401(k) plan testing and alternatives including APD/ACP testing from a tax perspective. These compliance tests are complicated and this session can assist auditors in become more adept in the area related to non-discrimination testing.

• Apply proper use of ADP/ACP testing based on its purpose.
• Identify issues involved with testing failures and corrections.

The panel will provide an overview of benefit plans' management responsibilities, including, but not limited to: accomplishing all regulatory requirements under management scope and all necessary elements, activities, recommendations, and decisions that ensure those requirements are satisfied.

• Identify management's main/key areas of focus regarding a benefit plan's scope of responsibilities.
• Apply the panel's recommendations on areas of focus and responsibilities to your company.

This session will discuss best practices for designing and monitoring a payroll audit program including techniques for completing a payroll audit and using payroll audits as part of the multiemployer plan audit. This session will also differentiate between payroll audits performed under SSAE 18 or consulting standards.

• Recognize best practices when designing and monitoring a payroll audit program and the use of payroll audits in the multiemployer plan audit.
• Identify the difference between payroll audits performed under SSAE 18 and consulting standards.

This session is part 1 of 2 of working through the planning and risk assessment process for the fundamental track case study and will continue in Session #19. These sessions include consideration of SOC 1 reports and certifications for limited scope audits.

• Recognize necessary procedures to properly plan an employee benefit plan, through utilization of an example.
• Recall risk assessment standards and linkage to planned procedures based on risk evaluation by audit area at the assertion level, utilizing examples of documentation tools.
• Recognize when limited-scope audits are appropriate utilizing evaluation tool.
• Identify a SOC 1 report and recall its components' (i.e., user controls) impact on planned procedures and risk assessment by walking through a SOC 1 evaluation.

This session will cover the objectives and uses of an actuarial report, the information contained in a report, assessing the actuarial methods and assumptions and discussing the information in the report that is most useful to an auditor.

• Determine what information is relevant for auditing purposes.
• Analyze the structure of a typical report.
• Apply the assumptions used and how to assess them.
• Select an actuary as a specialist based the qualifications.

This session will cover what are all the automatic options in plans to today (enrollments, distributions, investing, salary increases, etc), corrections for when someone is not auto-enrolled timely, and Rev Proc 2015-28.

• Obtain a basic understanding of common automatic provisions within the plan document - such as enrollments, escalation, and distributions.
• Understand challenges and most common errors related to automatic provisions.

Fringe benefits are a hot topic for employers looking to attract and retain talent in a tight labor market. Often, fringe benefits can be provided at relatively little cost while still providing benefit that employees value. Over time, changes in the business environment and employee demographics cause different fringe benefits to be perceived as valuable. This course will provide an overview of recent fringe benefit trends and the considerations for offering those benefits. Some benefits covered may include student loan payments, snacks, reward programs, and wellness programs.

• Recognize recent trends in fringe benefits.
• Recall tax consequences of trending fringe benefits.
• Identify important factors when choosing fringe benefits.

Session covers various employee benefit and executive compensation issues that arise in connection with mergers and acquisitions, including strategies for both buyers and sellers to address the issues.

• Predict health benefit plan issues in mergers and acquisitions.
• Assess and develop strategies for addressing the various issues that may arise.