Audits of Employee Benefit Plans Conference (E1605310)

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.

Kriste Naples-DeAngelo is a Partner in the firm’s Pension Services Group. With more than 25 years in the public accounting profession, she is responsible for managing numerous employee benefit plan audits and consulting with plan sponsors. She is integral in the design of continuing education courses and the training of the firm’s staff on employee benefit plan audits. She is instrumental in the design and maintenance of the master engagement templates used firm-wide. She has extensive knowledge of accounting and technical reporting standards, and has assisted clients with their annual audit and reporting requirements for both defined benefit and defined contribution plans. Her management skills, coupled with her auditing and employee benefit plan experience, provide clients with superior service, organization and knowledge. She works with plans for both public and private company plan sponsors and assists public companies with all aspects of SEC reporting, compliance and filings, including 11-Ks.

She has gained a reputation as an expert speaker on employee benefits and frequently presents on national webcasts, regional teleconference calls and seminars, and Continuing Professional Education courses. In addition, she has written articles, blogs and presented to various professional groups on a variety of employee benefit plan topics.

She is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) and serves on their Employee Benefit Plan Expert Panel. In addition, she is a member of the New Jersey Society of Certified Public Accountants (NJCPA), American Society of Pension Professionals & Actuaries (ASPPA), the New Jersey Chapter of the Worldwide Employee Benefits Network (WEB Network) and Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA).

Mrs. DeAngelo graduated from Kean University with a B.S. in Management Science and earned her M.B.A. from Centenary College. She has also been an instructor of financial services for the Small Business Development Center at Raritan Valley Community College, which is directed towards entrepreneurs, start-ups and established businesses, and has been an Adjunct Professor at Centenary College teaching undergraduate accounting courses.

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.

Wesley Stockard advises, represents and trains management clients on a variety of labor and employment matters, with an emphasis on litigation and counseling in the areas of public and private employer benefit plan litigation and design, including claims under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA); wage and hour compliance and litigation, including claims under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA); employment discrimination and harassment matters; Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) compliance; non-compete and non-solicitation covenants; and unfair labor practice charges.

Mr. Stockard litigates in federal and state courts throughout the country, and defends employers under investigation by the Department of Labor (including the Employee Benefits Security Administration), Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and state civil rights agencies. He has particular experience with class action and complex litigation matters, including litigation of class and collective ERISA and FLSA claims. His successes in class action litigation include several denials of motions for class certification and conditional class certification, as well as dismissals at the motion to dismiss, judgment on the pleadings and summary judgment stages.

Additionally, Mr. Stockard trains supervisors and human resources personnel on preventive practices to avoid litigation, including proper strategies for identifying litigation risks and documenting workplace issues. He also has presented training programs on topics such as proper management and processing of employee benefit claims; employee benefit plan fiduciary complaint and best practices; remedial steps to take to avoid off-the-clock and misclassification of FLSA and state law wage and hour claims; and avoiding litigation stemming from employee benefit plan administration, discipline and termination decisions. His advice and counseling work also includes drafting, designing, operating and regulatory compliance for employer benefit plans, as well as developing employer policies and handbooks.

In law school, Mr. Stockard was Managing Articles Editor for the Michigan Journal of Law Reform.

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.