Audits of Employee Benefit Plans Conference (E1705350)

As the Chief Accountant, Employee Benefits Security Administration, Mr. Auerbach is responsible for managing the resources of the Office of the Chief Accountant and implementing various comprehensive, nationwide enforcement programs relating to certain provisions of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). He also provides ERISA related accounting and auditing technical expertise within the Employee Benefits Security Administration and is the liaison with the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and other professional organizations. Mr. Auerbach provides executive oversight and leadership for EBSA’s fiduciary oversight program for the federal government’s Thrift Savings Plan (TSP). The TSP is the largest defined contribution plan in the world, with assets of in excess of $500 billion and 5.0 million participants.

Mr. Auerbach is a certified public accountant and earned his B.S. in accounting, from the University of Maryland.

Ken Bagner, CPA, MST is a Member of Sobel & Co., LLC. He is in charge of Employee Benefit Plan Audits at the Firm. His career with Sobel began in 1999 and over the years he has served diverse niches including commercial real estate, waste management, manufacturing, wholesale, not-for-profit organizations, and employee benefit plans. Clients value both his technical abilities and his “hand-on” approach to addressing the unique aspects of each client’s business as well as his ability to combine an expertise in both accounting and tax to provide them with the business advice they need. In his spare time, Mr. Bagner served as an adjunct professor at Rutgers University where he taught both taxation for the undergraduate level and the Certified Financial Planners Program. He is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) and the New Jersey Society of Certified Public Accountants (NJSCPA). Currently, Mr. Bagner serves on the Board Trustee for the NJSCPA Scholarship Fund. He is a past member of the NJSCPA Board of Directors serving a 2-year term (2008-2010). Mr. Bagner is a 1999 graduate of Montclair State University where he earned his Bachelor of Science in Accounting. In 2003 he graduated Summa Cum Laude from Rutgers University where he earned his Masters in Taxation. He is a member of the Beta Gamma Sigma, the highest honor society for collegiate schools of business.

Denise Finney is a Director in the Pension Services Group, who specializes inassisting clients with their annual employee benefit plan audit requirements. With over 15 years of public accounting experience,shehas served both public and private clients in a wide variety of industries with both defined benefit and defined contribution plans, including pension, 401(k), profit sharing, 11-K, 403(b), ESOP and health and welfare benefit plans.

Denise assists plan sponsors with their fiduciary responsibilities and effectively manages the audit process of plan sponsors with both single and multiple plans. She is involved in the design and delivery of firm’s annual continuing professional education and maintenance of the firm’s master engagement templates for the employee benefit plan audit area.

Denise consults with engagement teams firm-wide on employee benefit plan related topics, including plan mergers and terminations, plan investment arrangements, and fiduciary violations such as delinquent participant contributions and participant loan repayments. She is also involved in the firm’s Professional Practice Group specifically related to employee benefit plan audits.

Denise has presented to various professional groups and actively writes articles on employee benefit plan topics.Sheattends seminars to keep abreast of unique ERISA, DOL, IRS,PBGC, PCAOBand AICPA employee benefit plan issues.

Steven J. Friedman advises employers on a variety of aspects of employee benefits law including:

• The structuring and implementation of qualified and non-qualified retirement plans
• Welfare and fringe benefits programs
• Early retirement programs
• Severance plans

• Deferred compensation
• Supplemental executive retirement arrangements
• Stock-related compensation
• Stock appreciation rights
• Phantom stock plans
• Stock option plans

Elizabeth Harper (Liz), Member of the Firm, joined SobelCo in the fall of 2009 to assume the role of Quality Control Senior Manager. In 2014 she was promoted to Director with responsibility for reviewing all of the financial statements and service organization control (SOC) reports issued by the firm along with client correspondences ensuring that the highest quality standards are met and that the reports are in accordance with the established authoritative standards. Liz is dedicated to ensuring that the firm complies with its internal quality standards. This includes involvement with the engagement teams during all phases of the work, personnel training and development, and monitoring of engagement quality. Liz is also responsible for client service of SOC, employment benefit plan (EBP) engagements and other audits.

In 2016 Liz was given the additional role as Director of the Employee Benefit Plan Audit Group and in 2017 was elected as a Member of the Firm. Liz brings insights gained based on her previous experiences at a "Big Four" firm and a local CPA firm to all of the roles she plays at SobelCo.

While at a local firm, Liz had a wide variety of responsibilities across a range of industries, which she draws on daily at SobelCo. From her years at KPMG, Liz is able to leverage the knowledge she gained managing financial and internal control audits, quarterly reviews and agreed upon procedures, with well-known clients ranging from Philips Lighting to Ricoh Corporation. This global exposure adds value to the current SobelCo regional environment and it will be a critical component of future growth as the firm continues to expand, serving national and international clients in the coming years. By combining her perspectives from private industry and public accounting, she can provide meaningful solutions to SobelCo's clients.

Melissa B. Kurtzman focuses her practice on representing management in a variety of employee benefits matters, including the design and implementation of qualified and non-qualified retirement plans and welfare and fringe benefit programs, employee benefits tax matters and employee benefits in mergers and acquisitions. She also provides advice on: - Employee benefit plan administration - Reporting and disclosure obligations - Fiduciary responsibilities - Internal Revenue Service and Department of Labor correction programs - Contingent workforce issues - Efficient design of retirement and welfare plans Melissa acted as an expert witness in a federal bankruptcy matter in connection with qualified plan issues. Additionally, she represents plan sponsors in employee benefit plan IRS and DOL audits. She assists plan sponsors in self-audits of benefits plans prior to or in connection with government audits. Prior to joining Littler, Melissa served as a partner at WolfBlock LLP where she focused on employee benefits and served as a director of Erisa Compliance for a large 401(k) plan record keeping company.

Ian MacKay is responsible for directing the Employee Benefit Plan Audit Quality Center; monitoring Federal government activities (other than tax and governmental accounting) and communicating issues to AICPA members, providing technical assistance on federal legislation; liaising with Federal government agencies on audit and accounting matters, and monitoring and commenting on proposed regulation.

Mr. MacKay is a graduate of the College of William and Mary and former adjunct professor at George Washington University.

Robert Reilly is a Director in EisnerAmper's Audit and Assurance Services Practice. He has over 25 years of auditing and accounting experience in both the private and public sectors. He is a member of the firm’s Pension Services, Technology, and Manufacturing and Distribution Groups.

Mr. Reilly provides auditing and consulting services to clients in a wide range of industries. Working with companies in the technology, manufacturing and distribution industries, he has a strong understanding of the issues important to these companies. He also works extensively with employee benefit plans, including defined contribution, defined benefit, and health & welfare plans. He designs and delivers in-house training and speaks and writes on a variety of topics important to his clients and the sectors they operate in.

Prior to joining EisnerAmper, Mr. Reilly was an Audit and Accounting Manager at a regional accounting firm in New York City, and an Audit Manager at a Big Four accounting firm.

David Waddington, CPA is a partner at Friedman LLP with over 25 years of public accounting experience, founded and leads Benefits 21 LLC, a Friedman LLP company, providing consulting, design and administration of client pension plans, including defined contribution, defined benefit, deferred compensation, and IRS qualified flexible benefit plans.

Sheri Wronko is a senior manager based in WithumSmith+Brown’s New Brunswick office and has 17 years of experience in auditing ERISA plans including 401k, 403b and defined contribution plans. She is a certified public accountant in the State of New Jersey and a member of the Firm’s Employee Benefit & Pension Plans Services Group. She manages over 80 ERISA plan audits for the Firm’s New Brunswick office. Ms. Wronko is a contributing writer to WithumSmith+Brown’s ERISA Knowledge Corner and has been a presenter at the firm’s ERISA training. Ms. Wronko is a graduate of Penn State University, University Park, PA, where she earned a bachelor of science degree in Accounting. She is a member of the New Jersey Society of Certified Public Accountants (NJSCPA) and American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA).

Mike Yarrow is a senior manager at WithumSmith+Brown, based out of the firm’s Princeton, NJ office, and has over 16 years of public accounting experience. His expertise includes auditing several defined benefit and defined contribution plans ranging over $1 billion in plan assets with annual public and private filings. He services closely held corporations with both domestic and international operations and has extensive experience with financial reporting of companies with subsidiaries and other related entities.

A member of the Withum’s Employee Benefit & Pension Plans Group, Mr. Yarrow leads the firm initiative in staff training of audit techniques and procedures used in audits of employee benefit plans. He is also a contributing author to Withum’s ERISA Knowledge Corner and presenter on the ERISA Sunscreen video blog.

Mr. Yarrow is a graduate of Elon University with a BA degree in accounting and minor in business administration. He is a member of the New Jersey Society of Certified Public Accountants (NJCPA) and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), and also presents at various state accounting societies.

Also active in the community, Mr. Yarrow is involved with Advancing Opportunities (formerly Cerebral Palsy of New Jersey) as the current Audit Committee Chairman and Treasurer of the Board of Trustees Finance Committee.