Employee Benefit Plans

Audit Quality

Downey & Company is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants Employee Benefit Plan Audit Quality Center.  This demonstrates our firm's commitment to audit quality in the critical area of employee benefit plans.

Employee Benefit Plans

Each year, pension and welfare benefit plans (401(k) plans, 403(b) plans, profit sharing plans, defined benefit plans, etc.) are required to file an annual return/report regarding their financial condition, investments, and operations. The annual reporting requirement is generally satisfied by filing the Form 5500 Annual Return/Report of Employee Benefit Plan and any required attachments.   Certain deficiencies of the plan sponsor need to be reported to the Department of Labor.  Here is a list of Common Plan Sponsor Deficiencies Found in Employee Benefit Plans.

Not-for-profits 403(b) Plans Have New  Audit Requirements

The Department of Labor issued new regulations for 403(b) plans.  Starting in 2009, most 403(b) plans will be required to file a Form 5500 with the government.  Large 403(b) plans, those with over 100 employees, will also be required to include an audited financial statement with this filing. To help you determine compliance with the new Department of Labor's rules, see our 403(b) Audit Checklist.

Large Plan Audit Requirement

As part of the 5500 filing requirement, the Department of Labor requires large pension plans to file schedule H with their Form 5500.  A large plan is generally defined as a plan with over 100 participants at the beginning of the plan year.  In addition to filing Schedule H, large plans generally are required to be audited by an independent qualified public accountant.  Certain companies may be exempt of the audit requirement under the "80-120 Participant Rule." 

Downey & Company's Audit Approach

Downey & Company, LLP provides cost effective audits of employee benefit plans throughout the Unites States.  We specialize in auditing employee benefit plans.  As such, we can provide significant benefits to the plan sponsor:

Valuing Your Time

We will perform your audit in a timely manner.  Most firms, especially national and large regional firms, will take months to complete your audit.  Our goal is to have each audit completed in a few weeks, as opposed to months.  The difference is not in the amount or quality of work.  Rather, the difference is in our approach.  Larger firms will start and stop work on your audit several times throughout the engagement.  This approach is extremely inefficient for both the auditors and the plan sponsors.  We do not start new engagements until yours is complete.  We believe that all plan sponsors want their compliance work completed and put behind them as soon as possible.  We value your time.

Cost

The cost of our audits is significantly less than the cost charged by larger CPA firms.  There are several reasons we can provide better service than larger firms at less cost:

Specialization - We specialize in auditing pension plans and know what needs to be done and what does not need to be done.

Efficiency - As noted above, we perform our audits efficiently and promptly.  Time savings equals cost savings.

Experienced Personnel - We have very limited turnover and the same persons will perform your audit on an annual basis. Larger CPA firms simply can not say that.

Overhead - Our overhead structure is significantly different from the overhead required by larger firms.  This savings is passed along to our customers.

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For more information, please contact Paul McGovern at pmcgovern@downeycocpa.com or at 800-849-6022.