We are one of the largest accounting firms in the United States in the audits of employee benefit plans. Although located in California, our audit practice is a national practice whereby we serve as the auditor for clients located in other states, including Hawaii.
Experience
Employee benefit plans are governed by a myriad of ever-changing rules and regulations issued by the IRS, DOL, ERISA, and the Social Security Administration. These audits are complex and deserve an auditor who will "guide you through" rather than "stumble through" the process. We offer the following:
- Field auditors experienced in the rules and regulations of employee benefit plans.
- Field auditors experienced in working with your third party administrator.
- Field auditors experienced in working with your investment manager.
- Field auditors that won't change from year to year.
- Quick turn around to enable you to timely file form 5500.
- Reduced audit costs.
Cost Effective
Our experience in auditing employee benefit plans coupled with our audit approach and working relationship with third party administrators and investment managers enables us to perform a cost effective, timely, and comprehensive audit than those performed by "National" firms. It is simply what we focus on and do best. On average, our fees are approximately 50-75% of those charged by Big Four. However if fees are comparable, our experience has been that the internal costs to your staff (their time and energy) in complying with the audit requirement will be substantially lower when you select our firm to audit your company's Plan.
Working Relationships
Our long and extensive history of working with administrators and investment managers on a regular and consistent basis has gained us valuable insight on their record keeping procedures and reporting so that we can "streamline" the audit and keep the cost of the audit to a minimum. We are involved in all aspects of the engagement to insure the plan administrator that the best trained and supervised personnel in our firm are assigned to your engagement. Can the Big Four firms provide the same consistency ?
Timing
Rather than several months many of the Big Four and National firms take, audits generally take four to five weeks from the initiation of field work to complete.
