Attorneys have a bad reputation and a lot of times, it’s warranted. I jokingly said I knew why people hated lawyers just by going to law school.

While people may have disdain for lawyers, they serve a purpose and that purpose shows best when a retirement plan gets audited. ERISA attorneys work well with government auditors because they provide the information that is asked, they don’t volunteer information that plan sponsors unfortunately do. The audit process isn’t a picnic, it’s a tool that the government uses to ensure voluntary compliance with the Internal Revenue Code and/or ERISA. So bringing in an attorney won’t make the process to be adversarial, it already has been built in as being adversarial.

I’ve seen plan sponsors make an audit worse for themselves, by handling it on their own. Plan sponsors aren’t sophisticated enough in retirement plan law to handle things themselves. It’s best to hire a professional to do that.