The U.S. Department of Labor recently sent emails to sponsors of employee benefit plans that require an audit. The email provided guidance on selecting a qualified accounting firm to conduct the audit.
The email is a follow-up to a DOL study released in May that found serious problems with nearly 40% of employee benefit plan audits.
An upside of the study is the DOL found far fewer problems in employee benefit audits conducted by accounting firms with significant experience in the field. Firms that perform dozens of employee benefit audits had a far smaller deficiency rate (12%) compared to the deficiency rate of firms that only audit a handful of plans – a concerning 76% deficiency rate.
