Quality Oriented CPA Firms A quality CPA firm should have or possess the following: Be a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA).  Be a member of the Employee Benefit Audit Quality Center Should have extensive employee benefit plan litigation support experience Should have a minimum of 5 years of heavy benefit plan audit experience Should spend adequate time performing the audit.  See table below for hours required to perform audit. An extremely important part of the audit is to obtain confirmations of certain investment transactions and balances directly from the participant. Because this is a time-consuming process, many auditing firms choose not to send out confirmation letters to the participants in order to preserve/increase their profits.  We, on the other hand, believe that this part of the audit helps protect your audit from being rejected by the Department of Labor due to the auditor's lack of testing "participant data".  Therefore, we will select a number of participants to send confirmation letters to confirm their agreement of the transactions they have initiated through the custodian and employer. FREE LIST OF INTERVIEW QUESTIONS AUDIT HOURS  IS IT SUFFICIENT TO MEET DOL SCRUTINY? CAUTION:  (The DOL has the right to request a review of your auditor's audit workpapers) Hours Spent by Your Auditor Auditing Your Plan   Audit Quality Risk of Department of Labor Finding fault & Requesting Audit Deficiencies to be Corrected and/or Rejecting the Audit & Requiring that your plan be re-audited by another CPA firm Between 90 and 120+ Excellent Virtually no Risk  Between 50 and 89 Above Average Some Risk – may be required to correct audit deficiencies Between 40 and 49 Below Average Great Risk – may be required to correct audit deficiencies Less than 40 Sub-standard Extreme risk – audit may be rejected (Ask your auditor how many hours they will spend on your audit) Younger & Company, CPAs Accomplished Credentials: Average hours performed and an plan audit is between 90 and 150 hours. We are Members of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) Employee Benefit Audit Quality Center. Your audit is signed by a Licensed Certified Public Accountant. We are Specialist in Auditing Employee Benefit Plans 12 months out of the year (we perform no other types of audits). We have experience in dealing with key EBSA officials at the Department of Labor for which we enjoy an excellent reputation. We attend all seminars sponsored by the AICPA Employment Benefit Audit Quality Center, including those jointly given by them with the DOL. We possess heavy Litigation Support Experience in Plan Compliance Issues. We have established a Panel of Excellent Pension Attorneys. We have no discipinary actions against us with the Board of Accountancy or American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. We have Excellent References.  (We offer attractive discounts for previously audited plans)  Be sure to ask the prospective auditing firm if they are a member of the AICPA's "Employee Benefit Audit Quality Center". Their membership in this center will ensure that your auditor is kept abreast of the current audit requirements for employee benefit plans. Each member is also required to have one of its pension audits subject to "Peer Review" every 3 years by an independent CPA firm who has been authorized to perform such a review. The peer review report is then submitted to the AICPA. The AICPA helps ensure that CPAs are applying required professional auditing standards. This is very important because CPAs that are found to be grossly neglegent could lose their practicing license.  For further suggestions on how to select an auditor, click here Interview Auditor . The audit requirement for pension plans are government mandated; therefore, selecting an auditor to perform the audit of your company's pension plan is an extremely important responsibility for most Human Resource Directors, CFO's, Operations Managers, or Controllers, especially, if this is your plan's first audit, or, if you are looking to replace your existing auditor. If it is your first audit, you will want to make the best choice possible, considering that the pension plan's administrator would be held responsible for adhering to the DOL's audit requirement. The administrator is faced with potential penalties for willful, and, or intentional disregard for the DOL regulations. Therefore, of all the types of audits conducted by CPAs, the pension audit holds the most potential for severe penalites assessable directly to the plan administrator. The first thing you should be made aware of is that the audit of pension plans are a highly specialized field. Most CPA firms are not adequately informed as to all the audit techniques uniquely associated with pension plans. Nor, are they aware as to the related DOL and IRS penalties associated with the administration of the plan. Therefore, it is important to select an auditor who will conduct a quality audit to protect against any future potential repercussions, which, could result in severe penalties to the plan administrator. The Department of Labor also provides information.  Check out DOL's " Selecting an Auditor for your Employee Benefit Plan". Make certain your auditors are highly credentialed.  Many CPAs offering pension auditing services on the internet may not be performing an audit according to professional auditing standards or as required by the Department of Labor causing your audit to be potentially rejected by the Department of Labor and putting the employer at risk of having to pay significant penalties or plan disqualification.  Ask your auditor if their audit has ever been reviewed and rejected by the Department of Labor causing them to be disciplined by their Board of Accountancy.  Little known fact:  The DOL has a enforcement division targeting CPA auditors due to the poor quality of audits being submitted.  Be sure you obtain reliable references.  The number of CPA firms specializing in pension audits are few. Of the CPA firms specializing in pension audits, only a few have advanced experience in ERISA litigation support. Our firm has extensive pension audit experience, as well as, advanced pension litigation experience.  The number of  internet auditors who do not care about your audit being rejected are on the rise.   Be sure to obtain reliable references.  Obtain some ideas for interview questions from studying this page. Another important question to ask the auditor is what their hourly fee rate is and an estimate as to how many hours they spend performing a typical pension audit. The table above gives you a guideline as to how many hours an auditor should spend on your audit. You can apply their hourly billing rate to hours below to get an idea as to the range of fees charged by CPAs.