Compliance Tip of the Day: Assessing Internal Controls
Compliance Tip of the Day: COSO Objective 5 – Monitoring Activities
Hospice Insights Podcast - Election Inspection: Be Proactive to Avoid Costly Election Statement Denials
Compliance Tip of the Day: COSO Objective 3 – Control Activities
FCPA Compliance Report: Fraud Risk Management - Insights and Experiences with Peter Schablik
Hot Topics in International Trade - Let's Be Serious-Supply Chain Audits
Workplace ICE Raids Are Surging—Here’s How Employers Can Prepare - #WorkforceWednesday® - Employment Law This Week®
REFRESH Five Tax Traps for Business Lawyers Advising Nonprofit Organizations
Hospice Insights Podcast - Hospice Audit Updates: David Beats Goliath
Compliance Tip of the Day: Middle Managers as the Eyes and Ears of Compliance
Episode 365 -- Four Sanctions Cases Everyone Should Know
UPIC Audits
Compliance Tip of the Day: The role of Compliance in Auditing AI
California Employment News: Taking Advantage of the PAGA Reform – How Employers Can Lower Their Risk of PAGA Liability
Auditing Your Hotline and Case Management System
Hospice Insights Podcast - Controlling the Narrative: A New Tactic for Auditors and ALJs
Improving Your Code of Conduct
Now Is the Time to Conduct I-9 Audits: What's the Tea in L&E?
Preparing for — and Surviving — an OFCCP Audit
Hospice Insights Podcast - Meet the New Laws, Same as the Old Laws: Overpayment Recoupment Update
I love Las Vegas. Great restaurants, great shows, and five trips in a row without dropping a nickel into a slot machine. Why? Because I hate gambling. I hate losing even more. Honestly, just getting out of bed every morning...more
On Friday, September 6, 2024, the U.S. Department of Labor confirmed that its cybersecurity guidance applies to all employee benefit plans, including health and welfare plans. In 2021, the DOL issued guidance providing best...more
It is the first week of summer, even though in Ohio the smoldering heat has made it feel like summer for weeks now. Summer reminds many of us of pool days, eating watermelon and corn on the cob, Fourth of July fireworks, and...more
In welcomed news, under newly released DOL regulations, the Department of Labor (DOL) has updated the Form 5500 filing requirements to reduce the number of plans that will be required to obtain an annual audit. The rule...more
Bruno Mars may be crooning “Count on me,” but make sure you don’t overcount your retirement plan participants! New rules may allow you to leave some employees out of the count, which could save you the expense of the annual...more
One question that often comes up is whether an expense related to an ERISA plan can be paid with plan assets. The decision of whether to use ERISA plan assets to pay an expense is an ERISA fiduciary decision. With the recent...more
As part of our ongoing series on SECURE 2.0, this post discusses three significant changes to corrections of common retirement plan errors: (1) New rules for correcting overpayments, (2) expansion of the Self-Correction...more
The Department of Labor (DOL) recently removed one regulatory hurdle for public companies that maintain employee benefit plans subject to the Form 5500 requirement. Specifically, the DOL has relaxed the criteria for who...more
Attorneys from our Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation practice provide insights on current issues facing various types of employee benefits programs. Topics include: - Cybersecurity - DOL Audit Initiatives -...more
A plan with 100 or more participants requires an audit of a plan’s financial standing conducted by an independent qualified public accountant to be submitted along with Form 5500....more
In April, we posted about the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) issuing cybersecurity guidance for employee retirement plans. That is, April 14, 2021. Shortly thereafter, the...more
To increase protections for the estimated $9.3 trillion in American retirement assets, the Department of Labor (DOL) has begun a new cybersecurity audit initiative for retirement plans. After providing its first set of...more
The worst thing you can do is to handle things that you can’t. The one thing that plan sponsors can’t handle and shouldn’t is when they are contacted by the Internal Revenue Service and Department of Labor for an audit of...more
In light of a new DOL audit initiative and increasing cybersecurity threats to ERISA benefit plans, ERISA plan sponsors and fiduciaries should be prepared to answer some important questions: Do the cybersecurity programs of...more
We repeatedly warned over the past few months, that officials at the highest levels of the DOL were signaling that the DOL would begin an audit initiative focusing on retirement plan cybersecurity practices. ...more
”Not if, but when" is a phrase commonly used to describe data breach risk. Holding just under $11 trillion in assets, employer-sponsored retirement plans are a particularly enticing target for cybercriminals. Through audits...more
On April 14, 2021, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) released three-part guidance on cybersecurity issues for employee benefit plans, marking its first significant commentary on the issue since its comprehensive but...more
The Employee Benefits Security Administration of the United States Department of Labor (“EBSA”) recently published guidance regarding cybersecurity best practices for recordkeepers and service providers responsible for plan...more
In response to a request by U.S. Senators Ron Wyden (Oregon), Bernie Sanders (Vermont) and Patty Murray (Washington), the Government Accountability Office (“GAO”) earlier this year completed a study and published a report...more
I love Las Vegas and the last two times I was there; I didn’t gamble a nickel. I hate gambling because I hate to lose. For me, getting up in the morning is a big enough gamble. A lot of plan sponsors gamble when they...more
With calendar year-end Form 5500s due on July 31, or October 15 with an extension (and still no COVID-19 filing relief as of the date this blog was published), it’s that time of year where plan sponsors begin thinking about...more
Retirement plans with more than 100 participants require a CPA audit for their Form 5500. However, small plans with less than 100 participants may sometimes require an audit. This often happens when more than 5% of the Plan’s...more
It’s an easy requirement that many plan sponsors think they’ve accomplished, but they haven’t received the right one. We’re talking about an ERISA bond and often plan sponsors on a Department of Labor audit are told by the...more
When you get pulled over by the police while driving, the best way to handle is to be pleasant and not be argumentative. You listen to the officer as to why he pulled over. Being belligerent and non-cooperative will only lead...more
Overview of Benefit Plan Audits (Agencies Conducting Audits) - ..Internal Revenue Service (IRS) – Reviews both health and welfare plans and qualified retirement plans – Primary jurisdiction over qualified status of retirement...more