Audit deficiencies putting benefit plan and participants at risk.

• Position: Brief article

The U.S. Labor Department's Employee Benefits Security Administration has published its study on the quality of benefit plan audits performed by CPAs. The report, Assessing the Quality of Employee Benefit Plan Audits, reveals serious issues with the system and is available at www.dol.gov/ebsa/ pdf/2014AuditReport.pdf.

More than 7,300 licensed CPAs nationwide audit more than 81,000 employee benefit plans. EBSA's review found that 61 percent of audits complied with professional auditing standards or had only minor...