In its report, the Employee Plans (EP) Subcommittee reviewed the current status of the 403(b) community, with specific focus on areas that have resulted in a lower level of compliance with the Code and created excess operational costs. In the EP Subcommittee’s recommendations, it attempted to balance the needs of the 403(b) community with the
As we had previously reported, the Office of the Chief Accountant (OCA), Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA), U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), has recently completed an assessment of the quality of audit work performed by independent qualified public accountants (IQPAs) with respect to financial statement audits of employee benefit plans covered under the Employee Retirement
The FASB issued on May 1, 2014 Accounting Standards Update 2015-07, Fair Value Measurement (Topic 820), Disclosures for Investments in Certain Entities That Calculate Net Asset Value per Share (or Its Equivalent). The amendments in Accounting Standards Update 2015-07 (the Update) remove the requirement to categorize within the fair value hierarchy all investments for which
As expected, the FASB proposed three Accounting Standards Updates (ASUs) aimed at simplifying accounting for employee benefit plans. According to the AICPA Journal of Accountancy, the updates were the result of consensuses of FASB’s Emerging Issues Task Force. The three proposed ASUs for plan accounting were included in one exposure draft: Proposed ASU, Plan Accounting: Defined
On April 14, 2015, the U.S. Department of Labor has released a proposed rule that they believe will protect 401(k) and IRA investors by mitigating the effect of conflicts of interest in the retirement investment marketplace. A White House Council of Economic Advisers analysis found that these conflicts of interest result in annual losses of about 1
The Employee Plans Compliance Resolution System (“EPCRS”) sets forth a comprehensive system of correction programs for sponsors of retirement plans that are intended to satisfy the requirements of § 401(a), 403(a), 403(b), 408(k), or 408(p) of the Internal Revenue Code (“Code”), but that have failed to meet those requirements for a period of time. The
The Employee Plans Compliance Unit (EPCU) conducted a Voluntary Compliance Follow-Up project to determine if plan sponsors completed the corrections they agreed to in their Voluntary Correction Program (VCP) compliance statements. When you find errors in your plan’s form or operation, the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) encourage you to fix them using one of their