ERISA Covered Employee Benefit Plans Audit Quality

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) has completed an assessment of the quality of audit work performed by CPAs with respect to financial statement audits of employee benefit plans covered under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA).

The results of their study were alarming.

The study found that 30% of the plan audits failed to comply with generally accepted auditing standards (GAAS), putting $927 billion dollars and 11.7 million plan participants and beneficiaries at risk, an increase when compared to prior EBSA studies. One notable finding was that firms that performed the fewest benefit plan audits had a 70% deficiency rate in complying with GAAS.

The EBSA also concluded that audits performed by American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) Employee Benefit Plan Audit Quality Center (EBPAQC) members had a significantly lower deficiency rate. Jones & Roth is proud to have been an original member of of the AICPA EBPAQC since 2004.

This report confirms what our Employee Benefit Plan Audit team believes to be true – a quality auditor is one who has extensive and specialized experience in the unique and highly technical aspects of Employee Benefit Plan audits.

The Jones & Roth Employee Benefit Plan Audit team performs more than 90 benefit plan audits each year and is one of the largest providers of benefit plan audits in the state of Oregon. As a leader in this area, we hold a vigorous commitment to excellence, and our expertise covers common 401(k) plans, as well as other types of plans such as defined benefit, 403(b), employee stock ownership (ESOP), profit-sharing, health and welfare, and multiple or pooled employer plans (MEP or PEP).

If you have questions or would like to discuss our retirement plan audit services, please contact a member of our retirement plan audits team