Recent headlines have been dominated by major economic challenges and a shift in geopolitics. In this talk, Jason Schenker, President of Prestige Economics and Chairman of The Futurist Institute®, will explore the challenges of current economic and financial market dynamics, as well as geopolitical topics. Mr. Schenker's remarks will address the state of inflation, global debt, interest rates, equities, bond yields, commodities, and foreign exchange markets. There will also be a discussion of the potential near-term impacts of higher interest rates on economic growth, business investment, and the labor market. Mr. Schenker will discuss how Cold War Two® has contributed to the downdraft in financial markets and growth as well as what future challenges lie ahead for global stability, global supply chain, and commodity markets. Looking further into the future, Mr. Schenker will discuss how long-run trendlines in demographics and technology reveal some economic risks and opportunities. Mr. Schenker will share actionable takeaways and winning strategies to help companies succeed in the current era of uncertainty. Plus, Mr. Schenker will also share actionable winning strategies for the decade ahead.

Learning Objectives:

• Assess critical factors shaping current and near-term future economic and financial market conditions.
• Appraise economic, supply chain, and operational risks posed by Cold War Two® and related geopolitical issues.
• Evaluate future economic opportunities in the decade ahead presented by new and emerging technologies.
• Apply actionable winning strategies to the current situation and in the decade ahead.

Feeling a little PEPish? Pooled Employer Plans (or PEPs) are a variety of multiple employer plan that came into being as part of the original SECURE Act. PEPs have been permissible since 2021, and they are popping up all over the industry. Join Ilene Ferenczy for a survey of these plans, including what PEPs have to offer, what drawbacks exist, what rules are still not fleshed out by the IRS and the DOL, and what the auditing challenges for these plans can be.

Learning Objectives:

• Identify what PEPs are, legal requirements, and role in retirement industry
• Identify challenges in auditing PEPs
• Identify issues as yet unresolved and needed government guidance

A significant amount of information is electronically initiated, recorded, processed, or reported, and information to be used as audit evidence may be available only in electronic form. During this session we will explore SAS No. 142, Audit Evidence, the new auditing standard that addresses what constitutes audit evidence. We will also look at different types of information commonly presented to an auditor during the audit of an employee benefit plan, and identify considerations for auditors when evaluating information to be used as audit evidence.

Learning Objectives:

• Recognize how the nature of information to be used as audit evidence in an employee benefit plan has evolved.
• Identify how SAS No. 142, Audit Evidence, addresses what constitutes audit evidence.
• Identify ways in which auditors might test the accuracy and completeness of information to be used as audit evidence that is electronically initiated, recorded, processed, or reported.

Join us for round 1 of our Collaborative Learning Tables. (direct links to each table below) 

Topics include:

• SOC 1 Q&A Click here to join table
• Technology in your Audits Click here to join table
• Non-Traditional Staffing Click here to join table
• Growing Your Benefit Plan Practice Click here to join table
• Lessons Learned & Future Solutions Click here to join table

This session will discuss standards and other developments that impact employee benefit plan audits.

Learning Objectives:

• Recognize observations on 2021 audit cycle
• Identify new auditing standards
• Recognize select legislative, regulatory and industry developments

This presentation focuses on risk management best practices when conducting audits of employee benefit plans. The session offers lessons learned from CAMICO’s decades-long history defending CPAs from employee benefit plan and other A&A claims and provides important dos and don’ts to protect CPAs and
their clients.

Topics highlighted will include:

• Where do EBP audit claims come from? What does history tell us?

• Impact of select recent pronouncements including:

• SAS No. 136 – Forming an Opinion and Reporting on Financial Statements of Employee Benefit Plans Subject to ERISA

• The recent suite of auditing standards

• SSARS No. 25 – Materiality in a Review of Financial Statements and Adverse Conclusions

• Lessons learned from CAMICO claims history

• Other risk management techniques to CYA (“cover your auditing/attest work”)

Learning Objectives:

• Identify risk management best practices when conducting audits of employee benefit plans.
• Identify important dos and don’ts to protect CPAs and their clients.

Crypto or digital assets have been attracting significant interest in the last few years. Investments in or facilitating the involvement by others in this new ecosystem creates significant challenges for accounting and financial reporting. This session will provide an overview of these complexities, recent rulemaking by the SEC and the ongoing standard-setting efforts by the FASB.

Learning Objectives:

• Obtain an understanding of the accounting and reporting models potentially applicable to investments in digital assets
• Obtain insights into frequently encountered complexities and challenges related to investments in digital assets
• Obtain insights into the ongoing standard-setting efforts at the FASB and SEC related to investments in digital assets

Join us for your second chance, round 2, of our Collaborative Learning Tables. (direct links to each table below)

Topics include:

• SOC 1 Q&A Click here to join table
• Technology in your Audits Click here to join table
• Non-Traditional Staffing Click here to join table
• Growing Your Benefit Plan Practice Click here to join table
• Lessons Learned & Future Solutions Click here to join table

Find out what is new in the Office of the Chief Accountant, including:

• Updates to the DOL Independence guidance
• Cybersecurity guidance
• Status of the 2022 Audit Quality Study
• Common plan audit deficiencies
• How to avoid reporting compliance penalties
• Audit Quality initiatives

Learning Objectives:

• Identify what is new in the Office of the Chief Accountant.

In this session, we will discuss some of the most common issues identified during the 2022 EBP audit season and ways that plan sponsors might be able to “fix” those issues. The issues covered in this session will not only include operational errors, such as definition of compensation errors, but they will also include fiduciary errors, such as certain prohibited transactions, and late filing errors. In order to provide diverse perspectives on each of the topics covered, you will hear from both an auditor and a tax specialist.

Learning Objectives:

• Identify operational errors, definition of compensation errors, fiduciary errors, and late filing errors.

join us for this panel discussion featuring panelist from Empower, Principal and Fidelity. They will discuss opportunities and challenges that recordkeepers face and discuss collaborations with auditors. They will also discuss  how recordkeepers operate, with consideration to changing technology and general environmental changes.

Learning Objectives:

• Recognize how recordkeepers operate, with consideration to changing technology and general environmental changes.
• Identify opportunities and challenges that recordkeepers face and discuss collaborations with auditors.

Suralink is the leader in request list and document workflow management. Join this session for a demo to learn how Suralink can help you simplify the document exchange process while improving the client experience.

In this session, you will hear from Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, the Secretary's Representative on Pensions and Retirement at the Department of Labor and former Lt Governor of Maryland. She will cover the three goals of the Retirement Campaign:

1) Make it easier to auto enroll at work
2) Make it easier to take your retirement from job to job
3) Make it easier to transform a lump sum payment to a simple, affordable, understandable, lifetime income product.

She will also cover what she has learned from the first year of Roundtables.

Learning Objectives:

• Identify the three goals of the retirement campaign.
• Identify what has been learned from a year of roundtables.

Join accounting and auditing thought-leaders Donny Shimamoto, CPA/CITP, CGMA and Kelly Mann, CPA, MBA, as they discuss the impact of emerging technologies on accountants and auditors. Big data, artificial intelligence, and block chain technologies will transform how accounting and auditing is performed. Donny and Kelly will discuss the new role of the accountant/auditor, how to prepare for this shift in accounting, and strategies for enhancing your team.

Learning Objectives:

• Identify new technologies in auditing and accounting
• Identify new roles for accountants and auditors
• Identify preparation for the shift in accounting and auditing
• Recognize the impact of block chain, big data, and artificial intelligence technologies
• Identify a plan to enhance firms with technology

This is an opportunity for participants to have questions answered by various experts.

Learning Objectives:

• Identiy information in critical plan audit areas