Employee Benefit Plan Audits

Comprehensive Audits for Employee Benefit Plans

Employee benefit plan trustees and administrators have a fiduciary duty to ensure that participants’ funds are handled properly. To make certain that these plans meet the requirements imposed by plan documents, the IRS and the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), employee benefit plans with more than 120 eligible participants are required to have an independent audit every year.

According to the DOL, a quality audit helps protect plan assets and financial integrity, and helps administrators carry out their legal duties to file a complete and accurate Form 5500 every year. Moreover, an inaccurate, incomplete or untimely audit can result in significant penalties.

Gilliam Bell Moser specializes in these complex audits. Our team not only follows strictly prescribed audit procedures, we go several steps beyond. We are active members of the AICPA’s Employee Benefit Plan Audit Quality Center, which provides continuing education and training to our auditors. According to the chief accountant of the DOL’s Employee Benefits Security Administration, “Members of the AICPA Employee Benefit Plan Audit Quality Center perform this type of work much better than firms who are not members.”

To keep our skills sharp and current, we invest heavily in in-house training and seminars available through Allinial Global and the AICPA. We are committed to efficiency, providing clients an extensive pre-audit checklist and document uploading via a secure electronic portal.

Because we’ve been doing this type of work for many years, we know where to look for inconsistencies and fraud, and are familiar with best practices and the special auditing standards and rules that apply. Our informative management letter always offers suggestions for improvement.