The engagement came to us through a CPA firm we had worked with on two prior welfare-plan matters. The firm was representing a manufacturing client in ERISA litigation — the specifics of which are not material to this summary, and which were not, in any case, the subject of our work. What was required of us was narrower and, in the litigation context, often more valuable: a defensible reconstruction of the welfare plan's Form 5500 filings for the four plan years that the matter put in question.
The situation
The plan in question was a fully insured welfare arrangement at a mid-sized manufacturer. The original filings had been prepared by a TPA whose engagement had since ended; the working papers were partially available, partially missing, and partially in formats that the CPA firm's analytical team had not been able to reconcile against the underlying source records. The CPA firm's role in the litigation required them to defend a set of figures the original filings had reported. Our role was to produce the reconstruction that would let them do so.
The working scope was four plan years. The available source records included carrier statements covering the full period, broker compensation agreements as they had been in effect during each year, monthly billing records from the TPA, and operational records — enrollment, claims, COBRA administration — that were complete for three of the four years and partial for one. The six-week window was the time we had before the analytical memo was due to opposing counsel.
What we did
The reconstruction proceeded in three phases.
- Source-record assembly and verification. Two weeks of organizing the carrier statements, broker agreements, and operational records into a single dataset that could be reconciled against the original filings. The dataset included every figure that appeared on the Form 5500 or its schedules during the period under review, sourced to its underlying record. Where the source was missing, the dataset noted the gap rather than estimating across it.
- Reconstruction of the schedules. Three weeks of rebuilding Schedule A — premiums, participant counts, indirect compensation — for each of the four plan years, against the verified dataset. The reconstruction did not assume the original filings were correct; it built each schedule from the underlying records and noted any variance against what had originally been filed. The variances were small in aggregate and explicable on the record.
- The analytical memo. One week of producing the working memo that the CPA firm would attach to the dataset and submit through counsel. The memo described the source records, the methodology, the limits of the reconstruction where the records were incomplete, and the variances against the original filings. The memo did not characterize the merits of the underlying matter; it characterized the documentary basis on which the matter could be addressed.
The result
The dataset and the memo were submitted to counsel on the original deadline. Opposing counsel did not contest the reconstruction's methodology in subsequent proceedings; the variances we had documented were addressed in the matter on their own terms, and were not the source of the dispositive issues. The matter settled approximately four months after our deliverable, on terms favorable to the CPA firm's client.
The engagement is, in our experience, characteristic of the work we do behind-the-scenes for CPA firms, ERISA counsel, and broker engagements in which the named professional retains the relationship with the end client. The work is not visible to the client; the analysis is not branded with our name. What is required is the discipline of the reconstruction itself, and the willingness to document its limits as carefully as its conclusions.
Engagement summary published with the explicit consent of the CPA firm. The litigation matter is not discussed in any specificity; industry and engagement scope have been generalized where necessary. Cherry Park engagements are confidential by default, including behind-the-scenes engagements through CPA firms and ERISA counsel. Professionals seeking a co-counsel engagement on welfare-plan reconstruction or analytical work are invited to request a confidential plan review.