As part of our dedication to providing superior services, partners and professionals at Legacy Professionals LLP regularly attend conferences and training at both the state and national level. One premier conference we attend annually is the National Conference on Employee Benefit Plans presented by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA). Legacy Partners Eric Baertsch, Eileen Brassil, and Bob Cann attended this year's conference April 30-May 2, 2012.
Hearing directly from industry experts and authorities from the AICPA, Department of Labor, and Internal Revenue Service about important changes and current issues provides an invaluable opportunity to keep abreast of the latest rules, regulations, and implementation guidelines. Question and answer sessions with regulatory officials, including Assistant Secretary of Labor Phillis Borzi and DOL Chief Accountant Ian Dingwall, as well as other regulatory officials and industry experts were, as always, very well attended.
Hot topics at the conference this year included regulatory and reporting updates on various benefit plan types, legislative developments affecting pension funding, best practices for fiduciaries, health care reform, and financial services; various accounting updates affecting the required disclosures of benefit plans, especially in regards to its investments and their respective fair values; and numerous regulatory changes including disclosure and reporting requirements of plan fees and expenses.
After hearing from the experts at the three-day national conference, Legacy presented a full day in-house training seminar in June 2012 for employees of all three of our Firm's offices. By providing frequent updates to all of our professionals on economic, accounting, auditing, and regulatory developments, Legacy's goal is to achieve a robust understanding of the environment in which our benefit plan clients operate so that we can provide them exceptional support.