401k Pension Audit Tips

Maria Arriola with Dave Wilkins of Transamerica Retirement Services

On Thursday, Nov. 5 th our very own Maria T. Arriola stole the show at the Transamerica Retirement Services Breakfast for Financial Advisers.

The presentation was attended by over 30 different businesses that operate in the retirement services arena and Maria was invited to co-present along with Dave Wilkins, Regional Vice President of Transamerica Retirement Services.

A gifted speaker, Maria talked about 401k ERISA audits and the importance of having a good working relationship with your auditor and third party administrator. She also recommended these three steps to help keep the process as smooth as possible: 1) Amend the plan to force out terminated employees with an account balance of less than $5,000. 2) Carefully review the participant list to ensure only eligible employees are included in the participant count. 3) Qualifying companies should take advantage of the 80-120 exemption and elect to be treated as a small company.

The presentation also went into detail on common errors in ERISA audits. Of particular note were errors in the handling of employee contributions, the new changes to EFAST/EFAST2 (ERISA Filing Acceptance System), and making sure the census information is filled out correctly.

Overall the presentation went very well and Maria has already given another one and fielded several offers to give more.

If you require a 401k pension audit or have any questions regarding them please feel free to contact Maria at ELLS CPA’s.